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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 flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  24. I seem to be developing a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. drill — a practice
  3. shower — to wash
  4. field — farmland
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. field — for sport
  7. drill — army training
  8. current — happening now
  9. degree — from a university
  10. spring — of water
  11. bat — the animal
  12. degree — an amount
  13. current — of water
  14. rash — a series
  15. drill — the tool
  16. rash — hasty
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. degree — temperature
  20. spring — a coil
  21. field — a subject
  22. shower — rain
  23. current — electric
  24. rash — on the skin

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