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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  24. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. pop — to visit
  4. shower — rain
  5. field — farmland
  6. row — to paddle
  7. shower — to wash
  8. field — for sport
  9. wake — a trail
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. calf — a young animal
  12. wound — an injury
  13. degree — temperature
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. degree — from a university
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. calf — of the leg
  18. row — a line
  19. pop — music
  20. pop — soda
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. field — a subject
  23. calf — a young animal
  24. wound — an injury

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