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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. file — a document
  3. shower — to wash
  4. degree — from a university
  5. racket — for tennis
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. capital — a city
  9. shower — rain
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. degree — an amount
  12. squash — to crush
  13. degree — temperature
  14. file — a tool
  15. file — a line of people
  16. racket — a loud noise
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. capital — money

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