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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. degree — an amount
  3. hide — to keep secret
  4. face — to confront
  5. hand — in cards
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. face — part of the head
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. craft — boats
  11. file — a document
  12. craft — a skill
  13. capital — a city
  14. wind — moving air
  15. degree — temperature
  16. wind — moving air
  17. file — a line of people
  18. hand — help
  19. face — to point toward
  20. hide — to keep secret
  21. capital — money
  22. hide — animal skin
  23. file — a tool
  24. craft — a handicraft

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