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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. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. How do you ________________ your surname?
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. This piece is in a major ________________.
  21. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. last — to go on
  3. spell — letters
  4. degree — from a university
  5. last — final
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. key — for a lock
  9. wind — moving air
  10. stem — to come from
  11. game — wild animals
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. degree — temperature
  14. game — a match
  15. spell — magic
  16. degree — an amount
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. spell — a short time
  20. key — in music
  21. key — the most important part
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. last — finally
  24. fork — in a road

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