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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. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. Have you settled on a ________________?
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. hand — in cards
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. degree — from a university
  6. cell — in biology
  7. degree — temperature
  8. land — ground
  9. present — there
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. wind — moving air
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. land — to come down
  14. land — a country
  15. chest — of your body
  16. date — the fruit
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. wind — moving air
  19. degree — an amount
  20. hand — help
  21. chest — of your body
  22. chest — a box
  23. present — the time now
  24. cell — a phone

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