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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. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  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. straw — dry grass
  2. content — the amount
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. field — for sport
  5. field — a subject
  6. press — a publisher
  7. degree — temperature
  8. wax — to grow
  9. press — to push
  10. spring — the season
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. degree — from a university
  15. fork — in a road
  16. content — happy
  17. spring — of water
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. press — newspapers
  20. field — farmland
  21. spring — a coil
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. content — videos and posts
  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