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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  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. kid — child
  2. pop — music
  3. ground — the earth
  4. pop — soda
  5. tear — from crying
  6. ground — a position
  7. tear — from crying
  8. ground — crushed
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. wake — a trail
  12. degree — an amount
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. pop — to visit
  15. tear — to rip
  16. hand — help
  17. kid — to tease
  18. degree — from a university
  19. dip — to sink
  20. dip — to dunk
  21. hand — in cards
  22. dip — a sauce
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  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