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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: degree · racket · chest · wind · field · fall

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  3. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. racket — for tennis
  3. racket — a loud noise
  4. fall — to drop
  5. degree — an amount
  6. wind — moving air
  7. chest — of your body
  8. fall — to drop
  9. wind — moving air
  10. field — a subject
  11. field — for sport
  12. degree — from a university
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. chest — a box
  15. field — farmland
  16. degree — temperature
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. fall — the season

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