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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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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: perch · field · bark · cold · stick · swing · degree · roll

  1. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  24. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. degree — an amount
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. field — a subject
  6. field — farmland
  7. roll — a list
  8. cold — not warm
  9. swing — in golf
  10. field — for sport
  11. degree — from a university
  12. bark — to shout
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. cold — an illness
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. swing — music
  18. swing — to play on
  19. perch — the fish
  20. stick — a piece of wood
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. roll — a cake
  24. stick — to attach or keep to

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