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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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. He is an ace ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. bat — the animal
  4. last — final
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. degree — an amount
  8. capital — money
  9. last — finally
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. degree — temperature
  12. capital — a city
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. degree — from a university
  17. pitcher — in baseball
  18. bat — for baseball

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