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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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Word bank
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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. spell — magic
  4. degree — an amount
  5. spring — the season
  6. degree — temperature
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. mouse — the animal
  9. field — a subject
  10. field — for sport
  11. wound — an injury
  12. spring — a coil
  13. field — farmland
  14. spring — of water
  15. swing — in golf
  16. swing — to play on
  17. spell — letters
  18. spell — a short time
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. degree — from a university
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. swing — music
  23. mouse — for a computer
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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