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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. I've got to change the light ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The light ________________ burned out.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  23. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. degree — from a university
  4. bulb — for light
  5. degree — an amount
  6. degree — temperature
  7. scale — in music
  8. field — a subject
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. scale — size or range
  12. file — a tool
  13. bulb — for light
  14. field — for sport
  15. file — a document
  16. hand — help
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. mine — for digging
  19. file — a line of people
  20. hand — in cards
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. bulb — of a plant
  23. wave — a sudden rise
  24. scale — for weighing

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