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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 had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  9. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  10. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  11. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  17. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Have you settled on a ________________?
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. Should I buy a wireless ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. degree — from a university
  3. field — farmland
  4. field — a subject
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. row — a line
  7. field — for sport
  8. present — there
  9. mouse — the animal
  10. row — to paddle
  11. mouse — the animal
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. date — the fruit
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. capital — money
  16. present — the time now
  17. present — a gift
  18. bat — the animal
  19. degree — an amount
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. degree — temperature
  22. capital — a city
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. mouse — for a computer

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