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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. That must've been a ________________.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  18. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. rush — a thrill
  4. rush — hurry
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. face — to point toward
  7. face — to confront
  8. land — to come down
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. hand — help
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. face — part of the head
  13. land — ground
  14. land — a country
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. degree — temperature
  17. pound — a weight
  18. rush — to hurry
  19. file — a line of people
  20. file — a document
  21. file — a tool
  22. hand — in cards
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. degree — an amount

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