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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. Have you met the new head ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. degree — from a university
  4. present — the time now
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. face — to point toward
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. coach — pulled by horses
  11. game — wild animals
  12. cold — not warm
  13. face — to confront
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. ball — a dance
  16. game — a match
  17. ball — a great time
  18. hand — help
  19. present — there
  20. present — a gift
  21. degree — an amount
  22. degree — temperature
  23. hand — in cards
  24. coach — a trainer

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