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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 116 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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468
Word bank
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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  8. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  19. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. field — a subject
  3. degree — temperature
  4. wind — moving air
  5. degree — an amount
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. object — to protest
  8. object — an aim
  9. field — farmland
  10. object — a thing
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — an illness
  14. degree — from a university
  15. face — to point toward
  16. kick — with a leg
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. face — part of the head
  19. kick — a thrill
  20. field — for sport
  21. band — a music group
  22. band — a ring
  23. wind — moving air
  24. kick — in football

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