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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  3. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  11. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. staff — employees
  3. staff — employees
  4. content — happy
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. perch — the fish
  8. face — to confront
  9. face — part of the head
  10. staff — a stick
  11. face — to point toward
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. wake — a trail
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. prune — to trim
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. prune — to trim
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. degree — an amount
  21. degree — temperature
  22. content — the amount
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. prune — the fruit

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