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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. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. This piece is in a major ________________.
  21. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. key — the most important part
  2. degree — from a university
  3. drill — army training
  4. drill — a practice
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. field — farmland
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. file — a line of people
  9. squash — to crush
  10. face — part of the head
  11. face — to confront
  12. file — a tool
  13. face — to point toward
  14. field — a subject
  15. file — a document
  16. pitch — completely
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. drill — the tool
  19. squash — the sport
  20. key — in music
  21. key — for a lock
  22. degree — temperature
  23. field — for sport
  24. degree — an amount

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