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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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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: chair · field · club · degree · court · stick · season · cell

  1. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. field — farmland
  3. degree — from a university
  4. season — in sport
  5. season — of the year
  6. field — for sport
  7. degree — temperature
  8. club — a group
  9. club — for golf
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. cell — a phone
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. chair — a leader
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. field — a subject
  16. club — for dancing
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. stick — a piece of wood
  21. court — of a king
  22. court — of law
  23. cell — in biology
  24. degree — an amount

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