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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. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. I've got to change the light ________________.
  8. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. The light ________________ burned out.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. field — for sport
  3. race — humankind
  4. degree — temperature
  5. race — a contest
  6. march — music
  7. bulb — for light
  8. wake — before a funeral
  9. field — farmland
  10. bulb — of a plant
  11. pound — a weight
  12. spring — the season
  13. march — the month
  14. bulb — for light
  15. degree — an amount
  16. march — the month
  17. wake — a trail
  18. degree — from a university
  19. race — the arms race
  20. spring — of water
  21. spring — a coil
  22. pound — for dogs
  23. field — a subject
  24. pound — to hit hard

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