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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  6. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  7. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. We're on a ________________ here.
  16. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. field — a subject
  3. field — farmland
  4. degree — an amount
  5. calf — of the leg
  6. roll — a cake
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. swing — to play on
  9. degree — from a university
  10. race — humankind
  11. race — the arms race
  12. roll — a list
  13. file — a line of people
  14. file — a tool
  15. roll — on a roll
  16. swing — music
  17. degree — temperature
  18. race — a contest
  19. swing — in golf
  20. bowl — a football final
  21. field — for sport
  22. calf — a young animal
  23. file — a document
  24. bowl — to roll

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