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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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Word bank
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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: land · hide · mine · tear · degree · track · wake · snap

  1. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  22. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. track — a path
  4. tear — from crying
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. degree — from a university
  7. tear — from crying
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. degree — an amount
  10. tear — to rip
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. land — ground
  13. land — a country
  14. mine — for digging
  15. wake — a trail
  16. degree — temperature
  17. land — to come down
  18. hide — animal skin
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. track — to keep track
  22. track — a song
  23. snap — to click
  24. wake — before a funeral

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