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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. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  10. When was this ________________ built?
  11. Where did you ________________ them?
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. degree — an amount
  3. temple — side of the head
  4. kid — to tease
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. content — the amount
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. degree — temperature
  9. mug — a cup
  10. temple — a place of worship
  11. mug — to rob
  12. stock — goods
  13. spring — of water
  14. content — happy
  15. kid — child
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. stock — shares
  19. degree — from a university
  20. mug — a face
  21. bark — to shout
  22. spring — the season
  23. spring — a coil
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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