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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  4. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. I've got to change the light ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  9. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  12. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  13. The light ________________ burned out.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  23. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  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. field — for sport
  2. cold — not warm
  3. current — electric
  4. bass — low music
  5. kid — child
  6. bulb — for light
  7. cold — an illness
  8. jam — in traffic
  9. jam — to spread on bread
  10. degree — from a university
  11. bulb — of a plant
  12. current — of water
  13. bulb — for light
  14. kid — to tease
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. field — a subject
  17. field — farmland
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. bass — the instrument
  20. bass — the fish
  21. degree — an amount
  22. jam — a tight spot
  23. current — happening now
  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