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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 · tear · temple · rash · content · degree · game

  1. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. When was this ________________ built?
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Don't do anything ________________.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. kid — child
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. temple — side of the head
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. game — a match
  9. content — the amount
  10. degree — temperature
  11. tear — to rip
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. degree — an amount
  14. content — happy
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. tear — from crying
  17. rash — a series
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. kid — to tease
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. degree — from a university
  22. cold — an illness
  23. rash — hasty
  24. tear — from crying

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