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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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  11. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  23. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. file — a tool
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. file — a document
  5. prune — to trim
  6. field — farmland
  7. lie — an untruth
  8. field — a subject
  9. file — a line of people
  10. lie — to recline
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. sharp — clever
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. degree — an amount
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. wound — an injury
  19. field — for sport
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. wound — an injury
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. prune — to trim
  24. degree — from a university

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