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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. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  20. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. pass — a permit
  4. spring — the season
  5. degree — from a university
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. shower — rain
  8. field — for sport
  9. degree — an amount
  10. shower — to wash
  11. spring — of water
  12. pass — to spend time
  13. degree — temperature
  14. field — farmland
  15. field — a subject
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. bat — the animal
  19. branch — of a tree
  20. branch — a division
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. spring — a coil
  24. pass — to succeed

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