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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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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: stem · key · court · field · hand · wake · roll · degree

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. This piece is in a major ________________.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. We're on a ________________ here.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. key — the most important part
  3. degree — an amount
  4. stem — to come from
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. court — of law
  7. field — farmland
  8. key — in music
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. degree — temperature
  11. court — for sport
  12. roll — on a roll
  13. field — a subject
  14. hand — in cards
  15. roll — a cake
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. court — of a king
  19. key — for a lock
  20. roll — a list
  21. degree — from a university
  22. wake — a trail
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. field — for sport

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