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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. He works in a ________________ mill.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  22. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  23. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. tear — from crying
  3. net — in sport
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. kick — in football
  7. degree — an amount
  8. saw — the tool
  9. net — for catching
  10. degree — from a university
  11. tear — to rip
  12. shower — rain
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. row — a line
  15. saw — the tool
  16. tear — from crying
  17. degree — temperature
  18. row — to paddle
  19. net — after costs
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. saw — past of 'see'
  22. trunk — of a tree
  23. kick — a thrill
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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