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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. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  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 strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. perch — for a bird
  2. snap — to click
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. degree — temperature
  6. degree — from a university
  7. fall — to drop
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. degree — an amount
  11. tear — from crying
  12. tear — to rip
  13. wind — moving air
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. fall — the season
  17. perch — the fish
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. wind — moving air
  20. kid — child
  21. kid — to tease
  22. tear — from crying
  23. fall — to drop
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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