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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 cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. game — wild animals
  4. net — in sport
  5. game — a match
  6. band — a music group
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. degree — from a university
  9. net — after costs
  10. perch — the fish
  11. net — for catching
  12. tear — from crying
  13. degree — an amount
  14. band — a ring
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. ground — a position
  17. ground — the earth
  18. degree — temperature
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. ground — crushed
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. tear — to rip
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. coach — a trainer

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