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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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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  12. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  16. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. mark — to pay attention
  7. row — to paddle
  8. wind — moving air
  9. row — a line
  10. degree — from a university
  11. bowl — to roll
  12. bowl — a football final
  13. degree — temperature
  14. spell — a short time
  15. bowl — a dish
  16. mark — a grade
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cold — an illness
  20. spell — letters
  21. mark — a trace
  22. spell — magic
  23. wind — moving air
  24. snap — to click

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