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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. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. degree — an amount
  3. chest — of your body
  4. last — finally
  5. chest — a box
  6. last — to go on
  7. wound — an injury
  8. lean — to bend
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. chest — of your body
  12. tear — to rip
  13. degree — temperature
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. tear — from crying
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. lean — thin
  18. last — final
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. content — the amount
  21. degree — from a university
  22. content — happy
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. tear — from crying

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