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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 120 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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. My mare is ________________ in color.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. bay — a horse colour
  3. field — for sport
  4. cell — in biology
  5. game — a match
  6. kid — to tease
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. cell — a phone
  9. bay — to keep at bay
  10. kid — child
  11. degree — from a university
  12. field — a subject
  13. deal — to handle
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. field — farmland
  16. deal — a big deal
  17. wind — moving air
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. game — wild animals
  21. degree — an amount
  22. deal — an agreement
  23. wind — moving air
  24. bay — a part of the sea

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