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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. The ________________ went through the wall.
  13. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. band — a ring
  4. band — a music group
  5. row — a line
  6. mine — for digging
  7. degree — temperature
  8. band — a rubber band
  9. shower — rain
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. degree — from a university
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. face — to confront
  16. shower — to wash
  17. cell — a phone
  18. face — part of the head
  19. degree — an amount
  20. cell — in biology
  21. face — to point toward
  22. row — to paddle
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. cell — in a prison

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