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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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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: degree · deal · temple · wake · bat · file · game · cell

  1. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  11. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  12. When was this ________________ built?
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. cell — a phone
  3. game — wild animals
  4. deal — an agreement
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. degree — temperature
  7. file — a line of people
  8. temple — side of the head
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. deal — to handle
  11. temple — a place of worship
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. bat — the animal
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. game — a match
  18. file — a tool
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. file — a document
  21. degree — from a university
  22. cell — in biology
  23. degree — an amount
  24. wake — a trail

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