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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  7. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  14. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  15. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. fine — all right
  3. prune — to trim
  4. rest — a break
  5. degree — temperature
  6. jam — to spread on bread
  7. jam — a tight spot
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. file — a line of people
  10. fine — high quality
  11. prune — to trim
  12. field — for sport
  13. rest — what's left
  14. fine — a penalty
  15. rest — what's left
  16. file — a tool
  17. row — a line
  18. field — a subject
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. jam — in traffic
  21. degree — from a university
  22. file — a document
  23. field — farmland
  24. row — to paddle

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