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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. Don't do anything ________________.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. degree — an amount
  3. wind — moving air
  4. land — a country
  5. current — electric
  6. land — ground
  7. prune — to trim
  8. current — of water
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. rash — hasty
  11. wind — moving air
  12. rash — on the skin
  13. march — the month
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. land — to come down
  16. current — happening now
  17. march — the month
  18. squash — to crush
  19. squash — the sport
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. degree — temperature
  22. march — music
  23. prune — to trim
  24. rash — a series

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