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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. land — ground
  3. land — to come down
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. degree — from a university
  6. chest — of your body
  7. snap — to click
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. degree — temperature
  10. land — a country
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. chest — a box
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. degree — an amount

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