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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  7. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  11. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  24. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. rule — government
  3. degree — from a university
  4. roll — a cake
  5. tube — the underground
  6. safe — out of danger
  7. safe — a strongbox
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. present — the time now
  10. present — a gift
  11. rule — a law
  12. tube — a container
  13. kid — to tease
  14. field — for sport
  15. safe — out of danger
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. kid — child
  18. field — farmland
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. degree — temperature
  22. present — there
  23. field — a subject
  24. roll — a list

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