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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. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. content — happy
  3. degree — an amount
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. race — the arms race
  6. march — the month
  7. wound — an injury
  8. field — a subject
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. bat — the animal
  11. race — a contest
  12. prune — to trim
  13. prune — to trim
  14. field — for sport
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. march — the month
  18. content — the amount
  19. race — humankind
  20. degree — temperature
  21. wound — an injury
  22. field — farmland
  23. degree — from a university
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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