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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. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. The King held a masked ________________.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. field — a subject
  3. date — the fruit
  4. file — a tool
  5. ball — a dance
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. chest — of your body
  8. degree — an amount
  9. last — to go on
  10. degree — temperature
  11. craft — boats
  12. last — finally
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. craft — a skill
  15. field — farmland
  16. chest — of your body
  17. chest — a box
  18. file — a line of people
  19. last — final
  20. file — a document
  21. field — for sport
  22. craft — a handicraft
  23. degree — from a university
  24. date — on the calendar

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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