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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. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  3. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. David sat on the ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. She's very handy with a ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. swing — music
  3. wave — of the sea
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. swing — in golf
  6. saw — the tool
  7. swing — to play on
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. scale — in music
  10. shower — to wash
  11. degree — temperature
  12. wave — a sudden rise
  13. file — a line of people
  14. file — a tool
  15. saw — the tool
  16. degree — from a university
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. scale — size or range
  19. hand — help
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. file — a document
  23. hand — in cards
  24. shower — rain

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