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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. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. file — a tool
  4. land — ground
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. land — a country
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. degree — from a university
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. degree — temperature
  11. file — a line of people
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. hand — help
  15. lash — an eyelash
  16. drill — the tool
  17. drill — army training
  18. file — a document
  19. bat — the animal
  20. land — to come down
  21. snap — to click
  22. hand — in cards
  23. drill — a practice
  24. degree — an amount

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