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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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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: degree · field · last · race · perch · cold · court · can

  1. False peace will not ________________.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  18. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  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. last — to go on
  2. last — finally
  3. court — for sport
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. degree — temperature
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. degree — from a university
  8. degree — an amount
  9. cold — an illness
  10. field — farmland
  11. court — of a king
  12. race — humankind
  13. field — a subject
  14. perch — the fish
  15. cold — not warm
  16. court — of law
  17. can — to be able to
  18. can — a tin
  19. race — the arms race
  20. can — a tin
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. last — final
  23. race — a contest
  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