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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. field — for sport
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. squash — the sport
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. squash — to crush
  7. content — the amount
  8. mine — for digging
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. content — happy
  11. face — to confront
  12. face — to point toward
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. degree — from a university
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. field — farmland
  18. snap — to click
  19. lash — an eyelash
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. field — a subject
  22. face — part of the head
  23. degree — temperature
  24. mine — an explosive

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