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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. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. degree — from a university
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. current — electric
  6. clip — for paper
  7. face — to confront
  8. degree — an amount
  9. fall — the season
  10. clip — to cut
  11. face — part of the head
  12. face — to point toward
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. clip — a video
  15. fall — to drop
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. race — the arms race
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. current — happening now
  20. degree — temperature
  21. current — of water
  22. fall — to drop
  23. race — humankind
  24. mine — for digging

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