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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · degree · race · track · vault · face

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  7. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  18. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — not warm
  4. race — a contest
  5. degree — temperature
  6. track — a song
  7. track — to keep track
  8. face — to point toward
  9. track — a path
  10. race — the arms race
  11. cold — an illness
  12. vault — in gymnastics
  13. face — to confront
  14. face — part of the head
  15. race — humankind
  16. degree — an amount
  17. vault — an arched ceiling
  18. vault — a safe

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