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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. degree — temperature
  4. shower — rain
  5. wind — moving air
  6. cap — a lid
  7. file — a tool
  8. file — a line of people
  9. shower — to wash
  10. cap — a hat
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. row — to paddle
  13. wind — moving air
  14. stock — goods
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. spring — of water
  17. spring — the season
  18. spring — a coil
  19. stock — shares
  20. degree — an amount
  21. cap — of ice
  22. file — a document
  23. degree — from a university
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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