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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. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  8. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  11. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. I've got the luggage in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — the fish
  2. tear — from crying
  3. degree — from a university
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. last — to go on
  6. last — final
  7. dip — to sink
  8. patient — calm and waiting
  9. wound — an injury
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. dip — to dunk
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. wound — an injury
  14. last — finally
  15. degree — temperature
  16. tear — to rip
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. tear — from crying
  22. degree — an amount
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. trunk — of a car

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