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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 120 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 · field · cold · shower · press · face · coach · tube

  1. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  9. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. I'll be taking the ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Have you met the new head ________________?
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. field — a subject
  3. field — for sport
  4. degree — an amount
  5. press — to push
  6. field — farmland
  7. face — part of the head
  8. press — a publisher
  9. coach — pulled by horses
  10. tube — a container
  11. tube — the underground
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. shower — rain
  14. cold — not warm
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. face — to confront
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. cold — an illness
  20. press — newspapers
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. degree — from a university
  23. face — to point toward
  24. shower — to wash

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