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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 124 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. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. wound — an injury
  3. track — a path
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. chest — of your body
  6. chest — a box
  7. bark — to shout
  8. date — the fruit
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. track — to keep track
  11. track — a song
  12. degree — an amount
  13. degree — temperature
  14. wound — an injury
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. chip — to eat
  18. chest — of your body
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. degree — from a university
  21. chip — in a computer
  22. chip — for betting
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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