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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. We're on a ________________ here.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. spring — a coil
  3. field — a subject
  4. roll — a list
  5. hand — in cards
  6. rash — a series
  7. swing — in golf
  8. spring — of water
  9. rash — hasty
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. spring — the season
  12. rash — on the skin
  13. stem — to come from
  14. roll — on a roll
  15. field — farmland
  16. swing — to play on
  17. roll — a cake
  18. swing — music
  19. degree — temperature
  20. degree — from a university
  21. degree — an amount
  22. hand — help
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. hand — part of the body

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