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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — from crying
  4. net — for catching
  5. cold — an illness
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. tear — to rip
  10. net — after costs
  11. capital — money
  12. capital — a city
  13. file — a tool
  14. hide — to keep secret
  15. file — a line of people
  16. net — in sport
  17. hide — animal skin
  18. content — the amount
  19. cold — not warm
  20. degree — temperature
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. file — a document
  23. degree — an amount
  24. content — happy

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