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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. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. Have you met the new head ________________?
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  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. file — a line of people
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. face — to confront
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. prune — to trim
  7. hand — in cards
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. prune — to trim
  10. degree — from a university
  11. hand — help
  12. face — to point toward
  13. degree — temperature
  14. face — part of the head
  15. spring — the season
  16. content — happy
  17. file — a tool
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. file — a document
  20. spring — a coil
  21. content — the amount
  22. spring — of water
  23. content — videos and posts
  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