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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 120 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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. How do you ________________ your surname?
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. fan — to cool the air
  3. degree — an amount
  4. season — in sport
  5. stem — to come from
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. season — of the year
  9. spell — a short time
  10. degree — temperature
  11. swing — to play on
  12. degree — from a university
  13. file — a tool
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. file — a line of people
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. file — a document
  19. row — to paddle
  20. spell — magic
  21. spell — letters
  22. swing — music
  23. row — a line
  24. swing — in golf

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