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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: roll · mine · trunk · wound · degree · date · face · last

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. We're on a ________________ here.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. face — to confront
  3. wound — an injury
  4. trunk — of a tree
  5. degree — from a university
  6. last — final
  7. roll — a cake
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. face — part of the head
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. last — to go on
  17. roll — a list
  18. last — finally
  19. wound — an injury
  20. face — to point toward
  21. degree — temperature
  22. mine — for digging
  23. roll — on a roll
  24. date — the fruit

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