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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. net — for catching
  3. degree — from a university
  4. wind — moving air
  5. row — to paddle
  6. land — to come down
  7. chest — a box
  8. face — part of the head
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wind — moving air
  11. field — a subject
  12. net — in sport
  13. row — a line
  14. field — farmland
  15. land — a country
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. face — to point toward
  18. face — to confront
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. field — for sport
  21. land — ground
  22. chest — of your body
  23. net — after costs
  24. degree — temperature

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