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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. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. chest — a box
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. degree — from a university
  5. swing — to play on
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — of your body
  8. land — a country
  9. calf — a young animal
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. calf — of the leg
  12. cold — an illness
  13. degree — an amount
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. swing — music
  16. land — to come down
  17. degree — temperature
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. mine — for digging
  20. cold — not warm
  21. spell — magic
  22. swing — in golf
  23. spell — letters
  24. land — ground

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