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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. degree — an amount
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. stem — of a plant
  6. bat — the animal
  7. file — a line of people
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. kick — in football
  10. degree — from a university
  11. file — a document
  12. capital — money
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. degree — temperature
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. file — a tool
  17. capital — a city
  18. kick — with a leg

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