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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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Word bank
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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: cell · court · degree · face · land · rule · game · ground

  1. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  14. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. face — part of the head
  3. face — to point toward
  4. ground — the earth
  5. ground — crushed
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. land — a country
  8. cell — in biology
  9. land — ground
  10. court — of law
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. cell — a phone
  13. rule — to rule out
  14. rule — a law
  15. court — of a king
  16. game — a match
  17. rule — government
  18. face — to confront
  19. degree — temperature
  20. court — for sport
  21. land — to come down
  22. ground — a position
  23. degree — from a university
  24. degree — an amount

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