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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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. degree — from a university
  3. game — wild animals
  4. deal — to handle
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. degree — an amount
  9. degree — temperature
  10. racket — a loud noise
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. hand — in cards
  13. field — farmland
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. racket — for tennis
  17. wound — an injury
  18. hand — help
  19. field — for sport
  20. field — a subject
  21. deal — an agreement
  22. game — a match
  23. bark — to shout
  24. game — a kind of play

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