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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  3. What do you think of the new ________________?
  4. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. bear — to put up with
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. cabinet — ministers
  5. degree — temperature
  6. field — farmland
  7. chip — for betting
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. file — a tool
  10. bear — the animal
  11. march — the month
  12. field — a subject
  13. file — a document
  14. degree — an amount
  15. field — for sport
  16. chip — to eat
  17. chip — in a computer
  18. degree — from a university
  19. bear — the animal
  20. file — a line of people
  21. march — the month
  22. wind — moving air
  23. cabinet — a cupboard
  24. march — music

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