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

Word bank: cold · race · lie · tear · degree · nail

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. tear — from crying
  3. race — the arms race
  4. lie — to recline
  5. tear — from crying
  6. race — humankind
  7. lie — an untruth
  8. cold — not warm
  9. degree — an amount
  10. degree — temperature
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. tear — to rip
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. lie — an untruth
  18. race — a contest

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