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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: spring · wake · court · swing · tube · degree · key · field

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. This piece is in a major ________________.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  21. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. The ball is in your ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. court — of law
  3. degree — from a university
  4. court — of a king
  5. swing — to play on
  6. swing — music
  7. degree — an amount
  8. field — a subject
  9. wake — a trail
  10. key — in music
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — a coil
  14. degree — temperature
  15. tube — the underground
  16. spring — of water
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. field — for sport
  19. tube — a container
  20. key — the most important part
  21. key — for a lock
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. swing — in golf
  24. court — 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