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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  6. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. tear — from crying
  3. spell — letters
  4. present — a gift
  5. present — the time now
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. degree — an amount
  9. tear — from crying
  10. kid — child
  11. degree — from a university
  12. present — there
  13. spell — a short time
  14. capital — a city
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. row — a line
  17. tear — to rip
  18. degree — temperature
  19. kid — to tease
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. nail — on a finger
  22. capital — money
  23. row — to paddle
  24. spell — magic

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