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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: chest · season · pitch · file · last · degree · wind · saw

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. Did you ________________ the meat?
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. Spring is a pleasant ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. degree — an amount
  3. last — finally
  4. degree — temperature
  5. saw — past of 'see'
  6. chest — of your body
  7. season — to add flavour
  8. chest — of your body
  9. file — a tool
  10. season — in sport
  11. file — a line of people
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. wind — moving air
  15. pitch — a sports field
  16. file — a document
  17. degree — from a university
  18. wind — moving air
  19. saw — the tool
  20. pitch — completely
  21. chest — a box
  22. saw — the tool
  23. last — final
  24. season — of the year

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