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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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468
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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  3. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  19. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  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. degree — an amount
  2. rule — a law
  3. can — a tin
  4. kid — to tease
  5. rule — government
  6. kid — child
  7. march — the month
  8. march — music
  9. ground — a position
  10. can — to be able to
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. tear — from crying
  13. cell — a phone
  14. ground — crushed
  15. tear — from crying
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. march — the month
  18. can — a tin
  19. rule — to rule out
  20. ground — the earth
  21. cell — in biology
  22. tear — to rip
  23. degree — from a university
  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