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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. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  9. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a fruit stone
  2. degree — from a university
  3. pit — in a race
  4. spring — the season
  5. last — final
  6. last — finally
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. nail — on a finger
  9. nail — for a hammer
  10. spring — of water
  11. file — a tool
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. field — a subject
  14. file — a document
  15. file — a line of people
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. pit — a hole
  18. field — farmland
  19. degree — an amount
  20. last — to go on
  21. degree — temperature
  22. fan — a supporter
  23. field — for sport
  24. spring — a coil

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