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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  2. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. This piece is in a major ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. key — the most important part
  2. chair — to sit on
  3. tear — from crying
  4. chair — a leader
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. key — for a lock
  7. kid — to tease
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. degree — temperature
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. hand — in cards
  12. key — in music
  13. degree — an amount
  14. hand — help
  15. kid — child
  16. degree — from a university
  17. tear — from crying
  18. tear — to rip

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