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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: chip · vault · cold · field · drill · degree

  1. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  2. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  9. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  10. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — army training
  2. vault — a safe
  3. degree — an amount
  4. chip — for betting
  5. field — for sport
  6. vault — an arched ceiling
  7. cold — an illness
  8. vault — in gymnastics
  9. chip — in a computer
  10. chip — to eat
  11. field — farmland
  12. drill — a practice
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. cold — not warm
  15. degree — temperature
  16. field — a subject
  17. degree — from a university
  18. drill — the tool

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