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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  24. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. band — a music group
  3. wound — an injury
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — an illness
  8. field — for sport
  9. spell — a short time
  10. lash — an eyelash
  11. wound — an injury
  12. spell — magic
  13. field — a subject
  14. rock — music
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. band — a ring
  17. degree — temperature
  18. spell — letters
  19. degree — an amount
  20. degree — from a university
  21. rock — a stone
  22. cold — not warm
  23. rock — to move gently
  24. lash — to lash out

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