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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  6. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  7. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. saw — the tool
  3. kid — to tease
  4. degree — temperature
  5. present — there
  6. present — the time now
  7. present — a gift
  8. game — a match
  9. degree — an amount
  10. game — wild animals
  11. saw — past of 'see'
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. saw — the tool
  14. face — part of the head
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. face — to confront
  17. kid — child
  18. face — to point toward

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