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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  4. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  5. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  12. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. face — part of the head
  3. foot — part of the body
  4. craft — a skill
  5. craft — a handicraft
  6. ground — crushed
  7. field — for sport
  8. shower — rain
  9. bass — the instrument
  10. field — farmland
  11. foot — the bottom
  12. craft — boats
  13. degree — from a university
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. face — to confront
  16. face — to point toward
  17. ground — a position
  18. bass — the fish
  19. bass — low music
  20. shower — to wash
  21. foot — a measure
  22. field — a subject
  23. degree — temperature
  24. ground — the earth

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