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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 116 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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. This piece is in a major ________________.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  13. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. tube — the underground
  3. key — in music
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. mine — for digging
  6. degree — an amount
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. tube — a container
  9. degree — from a university
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. fork — in a road
  13. key — for a lock
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. wind — moving air
  16. key — the most important part
  17. game — wild animals
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. wind — moving air
  20. game — a match
  21. cold — an illness
  22. degree — temperature
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. cold — not warm

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