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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 116 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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  4. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  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 — from a university
  2. march — music
  3. fall — to drop
  4. current — of water
  5. field — a subject
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. file — a tool
  8. file — a line of people
  9. fall — to drop
  10. bark — to shout
  11. current — electric
  12. field — for sport
  13. degree — an amount
  14. field — farmland
  15. degree — temperature
  16. current — happening now
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. fall — the season
  19. march — the month
  20. scale — in music
  21. scale — size or range
  22. march — the month
  23. bark — of a tree
  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