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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. degree — an amount
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. last — to go on
  5. game — a match
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. last — finally
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. stock — goods
  12. ground — the earth
  13. cold — not warm
  14. degree — from a university
  15. wound — an injury
  16. ground — a position
  17. ground — crushed
  18. degree — temperature
  19. last — final
  20. cold — an illness
  21. game — wild animals
  22. wave — a sudden rise
  23. stock — shares
  24. cold — the Cold War

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