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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: cell · track · last · degree · field · roll · game · squash

  1. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  11. We're on a ________________ here.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. degree — from a university
  3. roll — a list
  4. game — wild animals
  5. cell — a phone
  6. squash — to crush
  7. field — for sport
  8. degree — an amount
  9. cell — in biology
  10. track — a song
  11. roll — on a roll
  12. last — finally
  13. squash — the sport
  14. field — farmland
  15. game — a match
  16. squash — the vegetable
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. track — to keep track
  20. field — a subject
  21. last — final
  22. track — a path
  23. degree — temperature
  24. last — to go on

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