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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's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. When was this ________________ built?
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  12. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  15. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. The ________________ went through the wall.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. 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. field — a subject
  2. temple — a place of worship
  3. degree — from a university
  4. nail — for a hammer
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. lie — an untruth
  8. cold — not warm
  9. temple — side of the head
  10. cold — an illness
  11. lie — to recline
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. tear — to rip
  14. temple — a place of worship
  15. nail — on a finger
  16. field — farmland
  17. tear — from crying
  18. field — for sport
  19. nail — for a hammer
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. tear — from crying
  23. degree — temperature
  24. 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