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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 120 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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  14. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. last — final
  4. hand — help
  5. last — finally
  6. face — to point toward
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. last — to go on
  9. cap — a hat
  10. degree — temperature
  11. present — the time now
  12. wound — an injury
  13. present — there
  14. cap — a lid
  15. wound — an injury
  16. cap — of ice
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. degree — an amount
  19. snap — to click
  20. present — a gift
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. face — to confront
  23. face — part of the head
  24. hand — in cards

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