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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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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 was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. The King held a masked ________________.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. ground — crushed
  3. wound — an injury
  4. face — part of the head
  5. face — to point toward
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. degree — temperature
  8. ball — a dance
  9. ground — a position
  10. wound — an injury
  11. face — to confront
  12. kid — child
  13. degree — an amount
  14. last — to go on
  15. last — final
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. last — finally
  18. drill — a practice
  19. kid — to tease
  20. drill — the tool
  21. drill — army training
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. degree — from a university
  24. ground — the earth

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