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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. kick — in football
  3. game — wild animals
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. tear — to rip
  6. degree — temperature
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. chest — of your body
  9. date — the fruit
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. race — the arms race
  13. degree — an amount
  14. race — humankind
  15. tear — from crying
  16. kick — a thrill
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. race — a contest
  20. chest — a box
  21. game — a match
  22. degree — from a university
  23. chest — of your body
  24. kick — with a leg

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