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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 124 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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. That must've been a ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. land — to come down
  3. content — the amount
  4. chest — a box
  5. degree — from a university
  6. rush — to hurry
  7. rush — hurry
  8. race — the arms race
  9. rush — a thrill
  10. degree — temperature
  11. clip — a video
  12. clip — for paper
  13. ground — crushed
  14. ground — the earth
  15. ground — a position
  16. chest — of your body
  17. land — ground
  18. content — happy
  19. land — a country
  20. clip — to cut
  21. race — a contest
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. race — humankind
  24. degree — an amount

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