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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. David sat on the ________________.
  8. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  11. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. fall — to drop
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. game — wild animals
  5. fall — the season
  6. tear — from crying
  7. swing — to play on
  8. patient — calm and waiting
  9. bark — to shout
  10. fall — to drop
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. tear — to rip
  13. game — a match
  14. tear — from crying
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. swing — in golf
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. degree — an amount
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. swing — music
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. degree — temperature
  24. bark — of a tree

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