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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 · game · chair · fork · degree · clip · race · content

  1. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. fork — in a road
  2. game — a match
  3. degree — an amount
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. clip — for paper
  6. race — the arms race
  7. race — humankind
  8. clip — to cut
  9. face — to point toward
  10. fork — a garden tool
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. game — wild animals
  14. content — the amount
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. face — part of the head
  17. race — a contest
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. content — happy
  20. degree — temperature
  21. face — to confront
  22. degree — from a university
  23. chair — a leader
  24. clip — a video

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