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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. land — to come down
  3. face — to point toward
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. wake — before a funeral
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. fall — to drop
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. face — to confront
  10. land — ground
  11. leaves — to go away
  12. land — a country
  13. degree — temperature
  14. capital — a city
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. degree — an amount
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. wake — a trail
  19. face — part of the head
  20. fall — to drop
  21. leaves — lets stay
  22. capital — money
  23. leaves — of a tree
  24. fall — the season

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