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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 116 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: wake · bat · game · present · tear · degree · kick · file

  1. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  4. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. bat — the animal
  3. wake — before a funeral
  4. present — a gift
  5. tear — from crying
  6. file — a document
  7. degree — an amount
  8. wake — a trail
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. kick — in football
  11. game — a match
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. present — the time now
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. degree — from a university
  16. file — a tool
  17. degree — temperature
  18. file — a line of people
  19. game — wild animals
  20. tear — from crying
  21. tear — to rip
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. present — there

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