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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: press · march · fork · capital · race · degree · roll · wind

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. Did you ________________ the button?
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. We're on a ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. march — the month
  3. fork — to eat with
  4. capital — money
  5. race — humankind
  6. wind — moving air
  7. press — a publisher
  8. roll — a cake
  9. degree — from a university
  10. degree — temperature
  11. race — a contest
  12. fork — in a road
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. fork — a garden tool
  15. capital — a city
  16. march — the month
  17. press — to push
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. race — the arms race
  20. roll — a list
  21. press — newspapers
  22. march — music
  23. wind — moving air
  24. roll — on a roll

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