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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. That must've been a ________________.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — a thrill
  2. spell — magic
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. rush — to hurry
  5. rush — hurry
  6. scale — size or range
  7. last — final
  8. degree — an amount
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. degree — temperature
  11. last — to go on
  12. band — a music group
  13. band — a ring
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. shower — rain
  16. scale — in music
  17. spell — a short time
  18. file — a line of people
  19. degree — from a university
  20. shower — to wash
  21. file — a tool
  22. spell — letters
  23. file — a document
  24. last — finally

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