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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: coach · clip · degree · tear · straw · game · field · jam

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. field — a subject
  4. clip — to cut
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. field — for sport
  7. degree — from a university
  8. game — a match
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. jam — to spread on bread
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. tear — to rip
  14. jam — in traffic
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. game — wild animals
  17. jam — a tight spot
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tear — from crying
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. clip — a video
  22. degree — temperature
  23. field — farmland
  24. clip — for paper

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