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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. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  3. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He is an ace ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. present — the time now
  3. plane — in geometry
  4. last — finally
  5. degree — from a university
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. present — there
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. row — to paddle
  11. last — to go on
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. row — a line
  15. degree — temperature
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — not warm
  18. degree — an amount
  19. plane — a tool
  20. last — final
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pitcher — in baseball

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