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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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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. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  7. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. ruler — for measuring
  3. chest — of your body
  4. shower — to wash
  5. cold — an illness
  6. rule — government
  7. fan — to cool the air
  8. chest — a box
  9. ruler — a monarch
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. degree — temperature
  12. degree — from a university
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. rule — a law
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. rule — to rule out
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. degree — an amount
  20. cold — not warm
  21. ruler — for measuring
  22. sharp — clever
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. shower — rain

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