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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 120 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. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. My mare is ________________ in color.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  10. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. degree — from a university
  3. wind — moving air
  4. chair — a leader
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. bay — a horse colour
  7. file — a line of people
  8. stock — shares
  9. bay — a part of the sea
  10. stock — a soup base
  11. wound — an injury
  12. staff — a stick
  13. file — a document
  14. chair — a professorship
  15. stock — goods
  16. bay — to keep at bay
  17. file — a tool
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. degree — an amount
  20. degree — temperature
  21. staff — employees
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. wound — an injury
  24. wind — moving air

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