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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. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. scale — size or range
  3. pitch — completely
  4. court — for sport
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. cell — a phone
  8. wind — moving air
  9. wind — moving air
  10. chest — of your body
  11. degree — temperature
  12. degree — from a university
  13. court — of law
  14. cell — in biology
  15. degree — an amount
  16. tear — from crying
  17. tear — to rip
  18. tear — from crying
  19. scale — in music
  20. pitch — a sales talk
  21. chest — of your body
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. court — of a king
  24. cell — in a prison

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