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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. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  2. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sales talk
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. snap — to click
  4. degree — from a university
  5. court — of a king
  6. court — for sport
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. drill — army training
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. tear — from crying
  11. tear — from crying
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. branch — a division
  14. field — for sport
  15. pitch — completely
  16. court — of law
  17. degree — temperature
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. drill — a practice
  20. field — farmland
  21. field — a subject
  22. tear — to rip
  23. degree — an amount
  24. drill — the tool

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