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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. prune — to trim
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. face — to point toward
  5. ground — crushed
  6. march — the month
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. stick — to attach or keep to
  9. game — wild animals
  10. march — the month
  11. face — part of the head
  12. degree — from a university
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. degree — temperature
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. shower — rain
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. face — to confront
  19. game — a match
  20. degree — an amount
  21. ground — a position
  22. march — music
  23. ground — the earth
  24. prune — to trim

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