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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 120 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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  3. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. That was ________________ to happen.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. bound — obliged
  3. bound — tied together
  4. degree — temperature
  5. wind — moving air
  6. field — for sport
  7. chest — of your body
  8. degree — an amount
  9. wind — moving air
  10. shower — rain
  11. spring — a coil
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. chest — of your body
  14. spring — of water
  15. bound — certain
  16. field — a subject
  17. racket — a loud noise
  18. spring — the season
  19. degree — from a university
  20. field — farmland
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. chest — a box
  23. racket — for tennis
  24. wind — to turn a key

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