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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. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  5. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. land — to come down
  3. kid — to tease
  4. calf — a young animal
  5. pit — in a race
  6. field — a subject
  7. field — farmland
  8. calf — a young animal
  9. spring — the season
  10. tear — from crying
  11. wound — an injury
  12. kid — child
  13. spring — of water
  14. field — for sport
  15. land — ground
  16. land — a country
  17. pit — a fruit stone
  18. wound — an injury
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. calf — of the leg
  22. tear — to rip
  23. spring — a coil
  24. pit — a hole

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