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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. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  4. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  10. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. present — a gift
  2. field — farmland
  3. root — of a plant
  4. pit — in a race
  5. field — for sport
  6. present — there
  7. chest — a box
  8. chest — of your body
  9. pit — a hole
  10. present — the time now
  11. chest — of your body
  12. file — a tool
  13. root — the cause
  14. net — for catching
  15. field — a subject
  16. root — of a word
  17. degree — from a university
  18. net — after costs
  19. file — a document
  20. degree — an amount
  21. file — a line of people
  22. pit — a fruit stone
  23. net — in sport
  24. degree — temperature

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