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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 116 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 hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  4. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  5. The ________________ took off on time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — a trace
  2. degree — an amount
  3. plane — a tool
  4. plane — in geometry
  5. plane — an aircraft
  6. cold — an illness
  7. land — a country
  8. land — to come down
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. tear — to rip
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. game — wild animals
  13. game — a match
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. bark — to shout
  16. degree — from a university
  17. mark — to pay attention
  18. tear — from crying
  19. cold — not warm
  20. degree — temperature
  21. mark — a grade
  22. tear — from crying
  23. bark — a dog's sound
  24. land — ground

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