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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Did you ________________ the button?
  7. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  8. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  22. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. degree — from a university
  3. present — a gift
  4. wound — an injury
  5. spring — a coil
  6. press — to push
  7. track — a song
  8. track — a path
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. wind — moving air
  11. field — a subject
  12. field — farmland
  13. degree — an amount
  14. spring — the season
  15. present — there
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. field — for sport
  18. present — the time now
  19. press — a publisher
  20. wind — moving air
  21. press — newspapers
  22. track — to keep track
  23. wound — an injury
  24. degree — temperature

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