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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: field · hand · content · snap · degree · mine · land · jam

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  19. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  20. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. land — ground
  3. content — happy
  4. content — the amount
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. hand — help
  9. jam — to spread on bread
  10. field — a subject
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. land — a country
  14. degree — from a university
  15. land — to come down
  16. hand — in cards
  17. degree — an amount
  18. snap — to click
  19. snap — to snap out of it
  20. jam — a tight spot
  21. mine — for digging
  22. degree — temperature
  23. field — for sport
  24. jam — in traffic

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