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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 120 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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  17. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  23. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  24. This piece is in a major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. field — farmland
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. field — a subject
  5. hand — in cards
  6. row — a line
  7. row — to paddle
  8. content — happy
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. lash — to lash out
  11. field — for sport
  12. content — the amount
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. lash — an eyelash
  15. degree — an amount
  16. key — for a lock
  17. kick — a thrill
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. degree — temperature
  20. hand — help
  21. kick — in football
  22. lash — a whip stroke
  23. key — the most important part
  24. key — in music

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