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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. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  12. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. field — a subject
  4. file — a tool
  5. degree — temperature
  6. wake — a trail
  7. rest — what's left
  8. wake — before a funeral
  9. present — a gift
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. rest — what's left
  12. present — there
  13. field — farmland
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. file — a document
  16. degree — from a university
  17. degree — an amount
  18. wake — to stop sleeping
  19. file — a line of people
  20. field — for sport
  21. cold — an illness
  22. cold — not warm
  23. present — the time now
  24. pitcher — a jug

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