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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  17. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The ________________ went through the wall.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. land — a country
  3. lash — an eyelash
  4. game — wild animals
  5. degree — an amount
  6. field — a subject
  7. chest — a box
  8. field — for sport
  9. lash — to lash out
  10. chest — of your body
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. land — ground
  14. bat — the animal
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. lash — a whip stroke
  18. field — farmland
  19. land — to come down
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. degree — temperature
  22. game — a match
  23. nail — for a hammer
  24. degree — from a university

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