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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: kid · cold · calf · degree · sharp · arm · tear · kick

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  14. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  15. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  16. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. My father caught me by the ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. kid — to tease
  3. calf — of the leg
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. kick — with a leg
  6. tear — to rip
  7. kid — child
  8. sharp — clever
  9. degree — temperature
  10. kick — in football
  11. sharp — with an edge
  12. tear — from crying
  13. calf — a young animal
  14. arm — a part of something
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. calf — a young animal
  17. tear — from crying
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. kick — a thrill
  20. degree — from a university
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. cold — not warm
  24. degree — an amount

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