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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. field — farmland
  3. cell — a phone
  4. land — a country
  5. race — a contest
  6. club — for golf
  7. degree — an amount
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. field — for sport
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. land — ground
  12. field — a subject
  13. land — to come down
  14. club — for dancing
  15. cell — in biology
  16. trunk — of a car
  17. club — a group
  18. race — humankind
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. pitch — completely
  22. race — the arms race
  23. degree — temperature
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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