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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. There's no middle ________________.
  2. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. My father caught me by the ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. arm — part of the body
  3. chest — of your body
  4. rash — on the skin
  5. spring — a coil
  6. rash — a series
  7. spring — of water
  8. degree — from a university
  9. chest — of your body
  10. stock — shares
  11. hand — in cards
  12. spring — the season
  13. degree — an amount
  14. hand — help
  15. ground — the earth
  16. arm — a part of something
  17. ground — crushed
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. rash — hasty
  21. stock — goods
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. degree — temperature
  24. chest — a box

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