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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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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: march · degree · wound · temple · lie · trunk · last · cold

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. When was this ________________ built?
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  21. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  22. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. temple — side of the head
  3. wound — an injury
  4. march — the month
  5. degree — from a university
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. wound — an injury
  8. march — music
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. temple — a place of worship
  12. march — the month
  13. lie — an untruth
  14. degree — temperature
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. last — to go on
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. lie — to recline
  19. degree — an amount
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. trunk — of a car
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. cold — not warm
  24. last — finally

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