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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 ________________ market has crashed.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. There's no middle ________________.
  10. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. She's very handy with a ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. degree — an amount
  3. field — for sport
  4. season — in sport
  5. clip — a video
  6. ball — a great time
  7. ball — a dance
  8. stock — goods
  9. ground — a position
  10. ball — a round shape
  11. ground — crushed
  12. clip — to cut
  13. saw — the tool
  14. field — a subject
  15. clip — for paper
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. saw — the tool
  18. season — of the year
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. degree — temperature
  21. field — farmland
  22. ground — the earth
  23. stock — a soup base
  24. degree — from a university

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