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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. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. chip — to eat
  2. degree — from a university
  3. degree — temperature
  4. cell — a phone
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. tear — from crying
  7. cell — in biology
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. season — of the year
  12. land — ground
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. land — to come down
  15. tear — from crying
  16. tear — to rip
  17. season — in sport
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. mine — for digging
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. degree — an amount
  22. land — a country
  23. chip — for betting
  24. patient — a sick person

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