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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: wake · bat · game · mate · field · drill · degree · hand

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. field — for sport
  4. game — wild animals
  5. bat — the animal
  6. wake — before a funeral
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. degree — an amount
  9. mate — a partner
  10. drill — the tool
  11. drill — a practice
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. degree — temperature
  16. hand — in cards
  17. mate — a friend
  18. degree — from a university
  19. hand — help
  20. game — a match
  21. field — a subject
  22. field — farmland
  23. wake — a trail
  24. drill — army training

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