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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 116 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: board · rock · hand · field · prune · cold · scale · degree

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  5. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  21. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. prune — to trim
  3. hand — in cards
  4. board — a flat piece
  5. board — a committee
  6. field — for sport
  7. scale — size or range
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. cold — an illness
  11. scale — in music
  12. hand — help
  13. degree — temperature
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. cold — not warm
  16. degree — from a university
  17. prune — to trim
  18. board — to get on
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. rock — to move gently
  21. rock — a stone
  22. field — farmland
  23. degree — an amount
  24. field — a subject

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