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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: mine · field · degree · mug · cold · ground · perch · tube

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. There's no middle ________________.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  7. Where did you ________________ them?
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  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. ground — crushed
  2. ground — a position
  3. perch — the fish
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. field — farmland
  6. mug — a face
  7. mug — to rob
  8. tube — the underground
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. field — a subject
  12. degree — temperature
  13. degree — an amount
  14. mine — for digging
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. tube — a container
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. cold — an illness
  20. degree — from a university
  21. mug — a cup
  22. cold — not warm
  23. ground — the earth
  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