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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: present · rush · hand · degree · face · ground · saw · spell

  1. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. She's very handy with a ________________.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — to hurry
  2. face — to confront
  3. present — the time now
  4. rush — hurry
  5. saw — the tool
  6. present — there
  7. hand — help
  8. degree — from a university
  9. degree — an amount
  10. spell — letters
  11. saw — past of 'see'
  12. spell — magic
  13. present — a gift
  14. face — to point toward
  15. ground — crushed
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. face — part of the head
  18. saw — the tool
  19. spell — a short time
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. hand — in cards
  22. degree — temperature
  23. ground — the earth
  24. ground — a position

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