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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Did you ________________ the meat?
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. field — for sport
  3. degree — an amount
  4. field — a subject
  5. season — in sport
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. kid — child
  8. season — of the year
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. clip — for paper
  11. row — a line
  12. fork — a garden tool
  13. clip — a video
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. field — farmland
  16. season — to add flavour
  17. degree — from a university
  18. bass — low music
  19. row — to paddle
  20. clip — to cut
  21. degree — temperature
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. fork — in a road
  24. bass — the fish

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