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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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  12. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. land — to come down
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. land — a country
  5. land — ground
  6. patient — calm and waiting
  7. bat — the animal
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. kick — in football
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. kick — a thrill
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. row — to paddle
  17. sharp — clever
  18. degree — an amount
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. degree — from a university
  21. degree — temperature
  22. mine — for digging
  23. kick — with a leg
  24. bat — for baseball

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