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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. David sat on the ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. wind — moving air
  3. swing — in golf
  4. game — a match
  5. degree — from a university
  6. current — electric
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. cold — an illness
  10. current — happening now
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. current — of water
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. game — wild animals
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. leaves — of a tree
  17. date — the fruit
  18. leaves — lets stay
  19. swing — music
  20. swing — to play on
  21. degree — temperature
  22. cold — not warm
  23. leaves — to go away
  24. wind — moving air

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