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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 120 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 laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  10. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  13. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. mark — a grade
  3. degree — an amount
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. hand — help
  6. degree — temperature
  7. chest — a box
  8. net — for catching
  9. track — a path
  10. mark — a trace
  11. net — after costs
  12. mark — to pay attention
  13. track — to keep track
  14. hand — in cards
  15. wound — an injury
  16. track — a song
  17. tear — to rip
  18. net — in sport
  19. tear — from crying
  20. chest — of your body
  21. tear — from crying
  22. degree — from a university
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. wound — an injury

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