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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. spell — letters
  3. degree — temperature
  4. wave — a sudden rise
  5. degree — from a university
  6. cold — not warm
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. degree — an amount
  9. last — to go on
  10. wind — moving air
  11. kick — with a leg
  12. mine — for digging
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. wave — of the sea
  16. last — finally
  17. spell — magic
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. spell — a short time
  21. cold — an illness
  22. wave — with your hand
  23. wind — moving air
  24. kick — in football

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