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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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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: band · race · fine · snap · kid · spring · degree · pitcher

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. band — a ring
  3. kid — to tease
  4. fine — all right
  5. race — a contest
  6. fine — high quality
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. fine — a penalty
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. race — humankind
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. spring — of water
  15. race — the arms race
  16. degree — from a university
  17. kid — child
  18. band — a music group
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. spring — a coil
  21. degree — temperature
  22. snap — to click
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. spring — the season

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