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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: race · degree · wound · tear · bore · march

  1. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  17. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. race — humankind
  2. tear — from crying
  3. degree — an amount
  4. tear — to rip
  5. wound — an injury
  6. degree — temperature
  7. wound — an injury
  8. tear — from crying
  9. race — a contest
  10. degree — from a university
  11. race — the arms race
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. march — the month
  14. bore — to tire
  15. march — the month
  16. bore — to drill
  17. bore — gave birth
  18. march — music

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