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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 120 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 · hand · club · ball · rock · straw · degree · perch

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. degree — temperature
  3. perch — the fish
  4. ball — a great time
  5. rock — a stone
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — not warm
  9. rock — to move gently
  10. hand — help
  11. club — for dancing
  12. ball — a dance
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. club — for golf
  15. hand — in cards
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. degree — an amount
  20. degree — from a university
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. club — a group

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