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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. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  5. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  19. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. lean — to rest against
  3. degree — an amount
  4. track — to keep track
  5. lean — thin
  6. degree — from a university
  7. bass — the fish
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. lean — to bend
  10. wound — an injury
  11. cold — not warm
  12. scale — size or range
  13. bass — low music
  14. wound — an injury
  15. wind — moving air
  16. cold — an illness
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. bass — the instrument
  19. track — a path
  20. wind — moving air
  21. track — a song
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. degree — temperature
  24. scale — in music

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