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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 · prune · field · hand · game · capital · leaves · file

  1. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. file — a line of people
  2. prune — to trim
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. leaves — lets stay
  5. degree — temperature
  6. field — a subject
  7. capital — money
  8. capital — a city
  9. file — a document
  10. degree — an amount
  11. game — wild animals
  12. game — a match
  13. file — a tool
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. hand — in cards
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. leaves — to go away
  18. degree — from a university
  19. field — for sport
  20. field — farmland
  21. prune — to trim
  22. leaves — of a tree
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. hand — help

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