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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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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. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. content — happy
  3. degree — temperature
  4. chest — of your body
  5. pitch — completely
  6. content — the amount
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. scale — size or range
  10. pitch — a sales talk
  11. field — for sport
  12. pop — music
  13. chest — a box
  14. chest — of your body
  15. field — farmland
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. field — a subject
  20. degree — an amount
  21. scale — in music
  22. pitch — a sports field
  23. pop — soda
  24. degree — from a university

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