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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. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. What do you think of the new ________________?
  4. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. That must've been a ________________.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  17. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. We're on a ________________ here.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. The ________________ went through the wall.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — on a finger
  2. file — a tool
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. nail — for a hammer
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. wind — moving air
  7. rush — a thrill
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. cabinet — a cupboard
  10. file — a document
  11. roll — a list
  12. wind — moving air
  13. cabinet — ministers
  14. degree — an amount
  15. degree — from a university
  16. rush — hurry
  17. roll — a cake
  18. march — the month
  19. file — a line of people
  20. degree — temperature
  21. roll — on a roll
  22. march — the month
  23. march — music
  24. nail — for a hammer

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