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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. I can't ________________ this cold.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. land — a country
  3. land — to come down
  4. stand — to bear
  5. shower — to wash
  6. stand — on your feet
  7. drill — a practice
  8. face — to point toward
  9. degree — from a university
  10. wind — moving air
  11. cap — of ice
  12. face — part of the head
  13. face — to confront
  14. cap — a lid
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. drill — the tool
  17. stand — for spectators
  18. degree — temperature
  19. cap — a hat
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. degree — an amount
  22. wind — moving air
  23. drill — army training
  24. shower — rain

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