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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. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — to hit hard
  2. snap — to click
  3. tear — from crying
  4. swing — to play on
  5. race — the arms race
  6. swing — in golf
  7. degree — from a university
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. degree — an amount
  10. cold — not warm
  11. race — humankind
  12. tear — to rip
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. pound — for dogs
  15. swing — music
  16. degree — temperature
  17. ball — a great time
  18. ball — a dance
  19. tear — from crying
  20. race — a contest
  21. cold — an illness
  22. pound — a weight
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. ball — a round shape

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