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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 120 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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Word bank
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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: race · rash · degree · field · mine · cell

  1. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. Don't do anything ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. race — the arms race
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. race — a contest
  6. cell — a phone
  7. degree — temperature
  8. mine — for digging
  9. field — a subject
  10. rash — hasty
  11. degree — an amount
  12. cell — in biology
  13. field — farmland
  14. degree — from a university
  15. rash — a series
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. field — for sport
  18. race — humankind

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