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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. last — final
  3. march — the month
  4. wind — moving air
  5. scale — for weighing
  6. rash — hasty
  7. wind — moving air
  8. degree — temperature
  9. face — part of the head
  10. march — music
  11. face — to confront
  12. scale — in music
  13. last — finally
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. last — to go on
  16. march — the month
  17. scale — size or range
  18. face — to point toward
  19. current — electric
  20. rash — a series
  21. degree — from a university
  22. current — happening now
  23. current — of water
  24. wind — to turn a key

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