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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. I can't ________________ this cold.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. stand — for spectators
  3. net — for catching
  4. degree — an amount
  5. cold — not warm
  6. field — farmland
  7. net — in sport
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. hand — help
  10. stand — to bear
  11. degree — from a university
  12. hand — in cards
  13. face — to point toward
  14. face — part of the head
  15. face — to confront
  16. degree — temperature
  17. field — for sport
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cap — a lid
  20. net — after costs
  21. cap — a hat
  22. cold — an illness
  23. stand — on your feet
  24. cap — of ice

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