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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: mark · hand · wound · content · scale · game · degree · wind

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. content — happy
  3. scale — in music
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. wind — moving air
  6. hand — in cards
  7. game — a match
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. wind — moving air
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. mark — to pay attention
  12. game — wild animals
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. content — the amount
  15. wound — an injury
  16. degree — an amount
  17. hand — help
  18. mark — a grade
  19. degree — temperature
  20. mark — a trace
  21. scale — size or range
  22. wound — an injury
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. wind — to turn a key

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