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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 116 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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Where did you ________________ them?
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. He refilled his coffee ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. cold — not warm
  3. tear — to rip
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. degree — temperature
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. tear — from crying
  8. bat — the animal
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. cold — an illness
  11. mug — to rob
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. branch — a division
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. mug — a face
  18. tear — from crying
  19. row — to paddle
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. degree — from a university
  22. degree — an amount
  23. snap — to click
  24. mug — a cup

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