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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · lean · pound · ball · lash · rash · degree · row

  1. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. rash — hasty
  3. lean — to bend
  4. degree — temperature
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. ball — a great time
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. cold — an illness
  11. degree — from a university
  12. lash — an eyelash
  13. degree — an amount
  14. row — a line
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. rash — a series
  17. row — to paddle
  18. lean — thin
  19. ball — a dance
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. cold — not warm
  22. lash — a whip stroke
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pound — a weight

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com