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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. We're almost out of ________________.
  14. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  15. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. wave — with your hand
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. degree — from a university
  5. degree — an amount
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. face — to confront
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. cold — not warm
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. pop — to visit
  13. pop — soda
  14. wave — a sudden rise
  15. wave — of the sea
  16. cold — an illness
  17. face — part of the head
  18. row — a line
  19. wind — moving air
  20. row — to paddle
  21. face — to point toward
  22. degree — temperature
  23. wind — moving air
  24. pop — 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