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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: content · field · degree · kid · wound · row · stock · rush

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. wound — an injury
  3. field — farmland
  4. field — a subject
  5. content — happy
  6. row — to paddle
  7. degree — an amount
  8. wound — an injury
  9. kid — to tease
  10. rush — hurry
  11. degree — temperature
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. content — the amount
  16. kid — child
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. stock — goods
  19. stock — shares
  20. field — for sport
  21. row — a line
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. stock — a soup base

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