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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 116 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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. How do you ________________ your surname?
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. vault — a safe
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. wound — an injury
  5. vault — an arched ceiling
  6. degree — from a university
  7. spell — magic
  8. spell — letters
  9. degree — temperature
  10. swing — music
  11. degree — an amount
  12. stock — shares
  13. field — a subject
  14. field — for sport
  15. tear — from crying
  16. wound — an injury
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. swing — in golf
  19. swing — to play on
  20. tear — from crying
  21. tear — to rip
  22. vault — in gymnastics
  23. spell — a short time
  24. stock — goods

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