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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: wound · wind · court · field · fan · degree · mate · bat

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  11. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. Have you found your soul ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. court — of a king
  3. wind — moving air
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. court — for sport
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. mate — a friend
  8. degree — temperature
  9. field — a subject
  10. mate — to breed
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. field — for sport
  13. court — of law
  14. degree — an amount
  15. fan — to cool the air
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. wound — an injury
  18. wind — to turn a key
  19. wound — an injury
  20. degree — from a university
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. bat — the animal
  23. wind — moving air
  24. mate — a partner

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