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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  3. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  4. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  5. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. scale — in music
  3. track — a path
  4. craft — a skill
  5. craft — boats
  6. land — ground
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. track — a song
  9. game — a match
  10. prune — to trim
  11. last — finally
  12. craft — a handicraft
  13. degree — temperature
  14. track — to keep track
  15. land — to come down
  16. game — wild animals
  17. last — to go on
  18. degree — an amount
  19. prune — to trim
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. degree — from a university
  22. land — a country
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. scale — size or range

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