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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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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: bat · tear · swing · hand · mine · kid · degree · dip

  1. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. dip — to dunk
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. bat — the animal
  5. dip — a sauce
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. tear — from crying
  8. swing — to play on
  9. degree — an amount
  10. swing — music
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. degree — temperature
  13. swing — in golf
  14. mine — for digging
  15. dip — to sink
  16. degree — from a university
  17. hand — help
  18. tear — from crying
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. tear — to rip
  22. kid — child
  23. kid — to tease
  24. hand — in cards

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