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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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  10. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. Have you settled on a ________________?
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — from crying
  4. degree — from a university
  5. net — for catching
  6. tear — to rip
  7. degree — an amount
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. dip — to dunk
  10. date — the fruit
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. dip — to sink
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. net — in sport
  15. cold — an illness
  16. last — finally
  17. capital — money
  18. net — after costs
  19. cold — not warm
  20. capital — a city
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. last — final
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. degree — temperature

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