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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. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  2. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — a grade
  2. current — of water
  3. clip — a video
  4. spring — a coil
  5. mine — for digging
  6. field — a subject
  7. current — happening now
  8. degree — from a university
  9. degree — an amount
  10. spring — the season
  11. content — happy
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. field — farmland
  14. field — for sport
  15. spring — of water
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. clip — to cut
  18. clip — for paper
  19. mark — to pay attention
  20. degree — temperature
  21. mark — a trace
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. current — electric
  24. content — the amount

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