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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  16. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  17. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. shower — to wash
  6. field — farmland
  7. degree — an amount
  8. ground — the earth
  9. fall — the season
  10. shower — rain
  11. degree — from a university
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. fork — in a road
  14. chair — a leader
  15. ground — crushed
  16. fall — to drop
  17. fork — to eat with
  18. degree — temperature
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. field — a subject
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. fall — to drop
  23. ground — a position
  24. fork — a garden tool

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