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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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. degree — from a university
  4. spell — a short time
  5. spell — letters
  6. object — an aim
  7. degree — an amount
  8. cell — a phone
  9. object — a thing
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. object — to protest
  12. wind — moving air
  13. cell — in biology
  14. land — ground
  15. land — to come down
  16. race — a contest
  17. race — the arms race
  18. spell — magic
  19. land — a country
  20. wind — moving air
  21. race — humankind
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. bat — the animal
  24. bat — in an idiom

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