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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 120 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: face · degree · perch · mine · race · present · chair · pitcher

  1. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  2. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a professorship
  2. present — the time now
  3. face — to confront
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. race — a contest
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. mine — for digging
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. chair — a leader
  11. perch — the fish
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. degree — an amount
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. race — humankind
  16. present — a gift
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. face — to point toward
  20. present — there
  21. race — the arms race
  22. degree — from a university
  23. degree — temperature
  24. face — part of the head

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