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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. False peace will not ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. degree — from a university
  3. wind — moving air
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. row — a line
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. last — finally
  8. row — to paddle
  9. land — a country
  10. pop — music
  11. pop — soda
  12. pop — to visit
  13. stem — to come from
  14. wind — moving air
  15. degree — an amount
  16. degree — temperature
  17. bark — to shout
  18. last — to go on
  19. last — final
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. land — ground
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. stem — a stem cell

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