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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The ________________ went through the wall.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  21. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  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. nail — on a finger
  3. track — a path
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. cold — an illness
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. fork — to eat with
  8. fork — in a road
  9. ground — a position
  10. ground — the earth
  11. row — a line
  12. track — a song
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. degree — temperature
  17. row — to paddle
  18. cold — not warm
  19. ground — crushed
  20. track — to keep track
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. wind — moving air
  23. wind — moving air
  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