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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 116 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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. Did you ________________ the meat?
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. I'll be taking the ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. last — final
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. season — of the year
  6. stem — of a plant
  7. degree — temperature
  8. last — to go on
  9. kick — in football
  10. stem — to come from
  11. field — farmland
  12. season — to add flavour
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. degree — from a university
  15. spring — a coil
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. field — a subject
  18. spring — the season
  19. spring — of water
  20. tube — the underground
  21. degree — an amount
  22. last — finally
  23. season — in sport
  24. tube — a container

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