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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. We're almost out of ________________.
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. That must've been a ________________.
  20. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — soda
  2. pop — music
  3. degree — temperature
  4. degree — an amount
  5. rush — hurry
  6. cap — a hat
  7. ground — crushed
  8. ground — the earth
  9. field — farmland
  10. drill — a practice
  11. pop — to visit
  12. spring — the season
  13. degree — from a university
  14. drill — the tool
  15. spring — of water
  16. cap — a lid
  17. ground — a position
  18. drill — army training
  19. rush — a thrill
  20. cap — of ice
  21. field — a subject
  22. spring — a coil
  23. rush — to hurry
  24. field — for sport

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