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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  8. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  9. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  16. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. mate — a partner
  3. tear — from crying
  4. mark — a trace
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. wind — moving air
  7. foot — part of the body
  8. foot — the bottom
  9. mark — to pay attention
  10. degree — from a university
  11. wind — moving air
  12. hand — help
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. tear — from crying
  15. mark — a grade
  16. foot — a measure
  17. field — for sport
  18. tear — to rip
  19. field — a subject
  20. field — farmland
  21. mate — a friend
  22. hand — in cards
  23. degree — temperature
  24. mate — to breed

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