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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: court · game · fine · tear · pound · race · degree · bat

  1. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. degree — an amount
  3. degree — from a university
  4. pound — a weight
  5. court — for sport
  6. race — the arms race
  7. fine — high quality
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. race — humankind
  10. fine — a penalty
  11. tear — from crying
  12. game — a match
  13. game — wild animals
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. court — of law
  16. court — of a king
  17. bat — the animal
  18. degree — temperature
  19. tear — from crying
  20. pound — for dogs
  21. race — a contest
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. tear — to rip

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