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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 116 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  13. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. This piece is in a major ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. kid — to tease
  3. file — a tool
  4. tear — to rip
  5. degree — from a university
  6. degree — temperature
  7. file — a line of people
  8. shower — rain
  9. squash — to crush
  10. kid — child
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. squash — the sport
  13. key — the most important part
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. degree — an amount
  16. key — for a lock
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. key — in music
  20. bat — the animal
  21. file — a document
  22. shower — to wash
  23. tear — from crying
  24. bat — for baseball

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