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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 116 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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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: cold · field · kid · hide · straw · cap · perch · degree

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. We have nothing to ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. cold — an illness
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. degree — from a university
  6. degree — an amount
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. cap — a hat
  11. kid — to tease
  12. field — a subject
  13. hide — animal skin
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. degree — temperature
  16. cap — of ice
  17. cap — a lid
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. kid — child
  21. field — farmland
  22. perch — the fish
  23. cold — not warm
  24. hide — to keep secret

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