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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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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 · shower · race · degree · dip · swing · tear · field

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. David sat on the ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  12. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. swing — to play on
  3. tear — from crying
  4. field — farmland
  5. degree — from a university
  6. swing — music
  7. sharp — clever
  8. tear — to rip
  9. sharp — with an edge
  10. race — a contest
  11. dip — to dunk
  12. dip — to sink
  13. swing — in golf
  14. field — for sport
  15. race — humankind
  16. dip — a sauce
  17. shower — rain
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. tear — from crying
  21. shower — to wash
  22. field — a subject
  23. degree — temperature
  24. race — the arms race

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