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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. David sat on the ________________.
  21. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. bore — gave birth
  6. swing — in golf
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. fork — in a road
  10. mine — for digging
  11. pound — to hit hard
  12. degree — from a university
  13. bore — to drill
  14. degree — an amount
  15. field — for sport
  16. field — farmland
  17. pound — a weight
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. swing — to play on
  21. bore — to tire
  22. swing — music
  23. degree — temperature
  24. field — a subject

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