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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. cap — a lid
  3. mine — for digging
  4. race — humankind
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. wind — moving air
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. hand — in cards
  9. field — for sport
  10. cap — of ice
  11. field — farmland
  12. field — a subject
  13. cap — a hat
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. race — the arms race
  16. race — a contest
  17. current — happening now
  18. hand — help
  19. wind — moving air
  20. degree — temperature
  21. current — electric
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. current — of water
  24. degree — an 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