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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: band · rash · fan · degree · chip · cold · pitch · bat

  1. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  17. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  20. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — for betting
  2. rash — hasty
  3. chip — to eat
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. degree — from a university
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. bat — the animal
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. degree — temperature
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — an illness
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. fan — to cool the air
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. chip — in a computer
  20. pitch — completely
  21. rash — a series
  22. degree — an amount
  23. band — a ring
  24. band — a music 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