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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. stock — goods
  3. wound — an injury
  4. wound — an injury
  5. bark — to shout
  6. tear — from crying
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. march — the month
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. tear — from crying
  12. tear — to rip
  13. game — wild animals
  14. degree — temperature
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. march — the month
  18. march — music
  19. degree — an amount
  20. stock — shares
  21. pound — for dogs
  22. game — a match
  23. pound — a weight
  24. degree — from a university

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