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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. degree — from a university
  3. file — a document
  4. file — a line of people
  5. file — a tool
  6. land — a country
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. degree — an amount
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. chest — a box
  12. degree — temperature
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. land — ground
  15. tear — from crying
  16. game — a match
  17. land — to come down
  18. bat — the animal
  19. tear — to rip
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. tear — from crying
  22. game — wild animals
  23. fan — a supporter
  24. chest — of your body

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