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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. pop — soda
  4. spell — magic
  5. spell — letters
  6. row — to paddle
  7. rest — a break
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. rest — what's left
  10. game — a match
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. pop — to visit
  13. pop — music
  14. rest — what's left
  15. game — wild animals
  16. stock — goods
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. degree — temperature
  19. stock — shares
  20. row — a line
  21. content — the amount
  22. content — happy
  23. spell — a short time
  24. degree — an amount

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