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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 120 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. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  2. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  3. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  4. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.

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

Answer key

  1. root — the cause
  2. fine — high quality
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. fine — all right
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. face — part of the head
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. degree — an amount
  10. bat — the animal
  11. degree — temperature
  12. root — of a plant
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. row — a line
  16. cold — not warm
  17. degree — from a university
  18. row — to paddle
  19. root — of a word
  20. cold — an illness
  21. face — to confront
  22. face — to point toward
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. fine — a penalty

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