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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: kid · degree · field · bass · club · craft · deal · spring

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  6. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  7. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  8. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  9. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  19. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  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. bass — low music
  2. club — for golf
  3. spring — a coil
  4. degree — from a university
  5. craft — a handicraft
  6. deal — a big deal
  7. bass — the fish
  8. deal — an agreement
  9. deal — to handle
  10. club — for dancing
  11. degree — an amount
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. kid — to tease
  14. craft — a skill
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. field — farmland
  17. degree — temperature
  18. club — a group
  19. craft — boats
  20. kid — child
  21. spring — of water
  22. spring — the season
  23. field — a subject
  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