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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 116 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 university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  4. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. field — for sport
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. stem — a stem cell
  5. shower — to wash
  6. field — farmland
  7. content — happy
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. content — the amount
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. degree — temperature
  12. degree — an amount
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. shower — rain
  18. stem — to come from
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. racket — a loud noise
  21. field — a subject
  22. racket — for tennis
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. stem — of a plant

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