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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. The ________________ went through the wall.
  7. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  22. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. chest — a box
  3. kid — to tease
  4. kick — in football
  5. degree — an amount
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. spring — a coil
  9. content — happy
  10. spring — of water
  11. degree — temperature
  12. pound — a weight
  13. content — the amount
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. kid — child
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. chest — of your body
  18. spring — the season
  19. kick — a thrill
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. kick — with a leg
  22. nail — on a finger
  23. chest — of your body
  24. pound — to hit hard

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