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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: sharp · spring · wound · cabinet · race · hand · degree · tear

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. What do you think of the new ________________?
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. cabinet — a cupboard
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. race — humankind
  6. tear — from crying
  7. spring — a coil
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. degree — temperature
  10. race — the arms race
  11. tear — to rip
  12. spring — the season
  13. sharp — clever
  14. hand — help
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cabinet — ministers
  17. race — a contest
  18. tear — from crying
  19. spring — of water
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. cabinet — ministers
  22. degree — from a university
  23. wound — an injury
  24. hand — in cards

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