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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: perch · bark · degree · track · plane · capital · kid · field

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  9. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  10. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. field — a subject
  3. capital — money
  4. kid — child
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. degree — an amount
  8. plane — a tool
  9. bark — to shout
  10. track — a path
  11. track — a song
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. degree — from a university
  16. capital — a city
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. degree — temperature
  20. track — to keep track
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. field — farmland
  23. perch — the fish
  24. kid — to tease

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