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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  15. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  20. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. land — a country
  3. game — wild animals
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. field — a subject
  7. band — a ring
  8. capital — money
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. degree — temperature
  11. band — a music group
  12. game — a match
  13. cell — in biology
  14. fine — all right
  15. fine — a penalty
  16. field — for sport
  17. capital — a city
  18. degree — an amount
  19. fine — high quality
  20. cell — a phone
  21. land — ground
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. land — to come down
  24. degree — from a university

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