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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: pop · degree · last · field · club · net · cell · wake

  1. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. We're almost out of ________________.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. last — final
  3. net — after costs
  4. net — in sport
  5. last — to go on
  6. degree — temperature
  7. field — a subject
  8. pop — soda
  9. club — for golf
  10. pop — music
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. degree — an amount
  13. club — for dancing
  14. cell — a phone
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cell — in biology
  17. net — for catching
  18. club — a group
  19. field — for sport
  20. pop — to visit
  21. field — farmland
  22. wake — a trail
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. last — finally

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