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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. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  2. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.

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

Answer key

  1. calf — a young animal
  2. pit — a hole
  3. game — wild animals
  4. chest — of your body
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. prune — to trim
  8. hand — help
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. field — for sport
  11. calf — of the leg
  12. field — farmland
  13. degree — from a university
  14. prune — to trim
  15. degree — temperature
  16. pit — a fruit stone
  17. degree — an amount
  18. hand — in cards
  19. calf — a young animal
  20. field — a subject
  21. chest — of your body
  22. chest — a box
  23. game — a match
  24. pit — in a race

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