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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. file — a tool
  3. degree — an amount
  4. ground — crushed
  5. march — music
  6. march — the month
  7. march — the month
  8. can — a tin
  9. file — a document
  10. can — a tin
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. mark — to pay attention
  13. sharp — clever
  14. degree — from a university
  15. can — to be able to
  16. degree — temperature
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. mark — a grade
  19. ground — a position
  20. mark — a trace
  21. file — a line of people
  22. game — a match
  23. game — wild animals
  24. ground — the earth

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