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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: race · bat · chest · degree · leaves · hide

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  8. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  16. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. degree — from a university
  3. chest — of your body
  4. race — humankind
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. bat — the animal
  7. leaves — of a tree
  8. hide — animal skin
  9. race — the arms race
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. degree — temperature
  13. leaves — to go away
  14. race — a contest
  15. hide — to keep secret
  16. leaves — lets stay
  17. degree — an amount
  18. chest — a box

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