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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. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  2. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  5. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  8. Have you settled on a ________________?
  9. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  10. This piece is in a major ________________.
  11. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. object — a thing
  2. dip — to dunk
  3. degree — an amount
  4. key — for a lock
  5. object — an aim
  6. field — a subject
  7. key — the most important part
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. date — the fruit
  10. key — in music
  11. object — to protest
  12. field — for sport
  13. shower — to wash
  14. cell — a phone
  15. field — farmland
  16. dip — a sauce
  17. shower — rain
  18. cell — in biology
  19. degree — from a university
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. dip — to sink
  23. degree — temperature
  24. date — on the calendar

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