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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 120 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: wound · degree · squash · stem · chest · tear · race · rock

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  9. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  14. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. race — a contest
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. tear — to rip
  5. squash — the sport
  6. wound — an injury
  7. degree — an amount
  8. rock — a stone
  9. stem — a stem cell
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. chest — a box
  12. tear — from crying
  13. rock — music
  14. squash — the vegetable
  15. chest — of your body
  16. wound — an injury
  17. race — the arms race
  18. squash — to crush
  19. degree — from a university
  20. degree — temperature
  21. tear — from crying
  22. stem — to come from
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. race — humankind

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