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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  13. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. face — to confront
  3. shower — to wash
  4. hand — in cards
  5. mate — a friend
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. mate — to breed
  8. hand — help
  9. degree — temperature
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. mate — a partner
  12. cue — a hint
  13. cue — a signal
  14. tear — to rip
  15. face — to point toward
  16. tear — from crying
  17. patient — calm and waiting
  18. shower — rain
  19. tear — from crying
  20. face — part of the head
  21. cue — for pool
  22. degree — from a university
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. patient — a sick person

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