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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. field — a subject
  3. degree — an amount
  4. bowl — a football final
  5. band — a ring
  6. bowl — to roll
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. spring — of water
  9. row — to paddle
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. spring — the season
  13. content — happy
  14. degree — temperature
  15. hand — in cards
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. degree — from a university
  18. field — for sport
  19. row — a line
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. hand — help
  22. field — farmland
  23. content — the amount
  24. spring — a coil

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