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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  14. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. degree — an amount
  3. club — for dancing
  4. game — wild animals
  5. game — a match
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. kick — with a leg
  8. cell — in biology
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. degree — from a university
  11. pit — a fruit stone
  12. last — to go on
  13. wax — to grow
  14. club — for golf
  15. pit — a hole
  16. kick — a thrill
  17. degree — temperature
  18. kick — in football
  19. pit — in a race
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. cell — a phone
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. last — finally
  24. club — a group

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