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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.

Words on the sheet
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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 · cold · degree · drill · spell · capital · trunk · plane

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. The ________________ took off on time.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. I've got the luggage in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. plane — in geometry
  3. spell — a short time
  4. plane — an aircraft
  5. field — a subject
  6. degree — from a university
  7. drill — the tool
  8. trunk — of a tree
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. drill — a practice
  11. capital — money
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. spell — magic
  14. field — for sport
  15. plane — a tool
  16. field — farmland
  17. degree — temperature
  18. cold — not warm
  19. degree — an amount
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. drill — army training
  22. cold — an illness
  23. capital — a city
  24. trunk — of a car

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