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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. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  19. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. land — ground
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. land — a country
  6. file — a tool
  7. mark — a trace
  8. field — a subject
  9. mark — a grade
  10. race — humankind
  11. race — the arms race
  12. mark — to pay attention
  13. cap — a hat
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. file — a line of people
  16. cap — of ice
  17. field — farmland
  18. cap — a lid
  19. race — a contest
  20. field — for sport
  21. degree — from a university
  22. land — to come down
  23. degree — temperature
  24. file — a document

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