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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 116 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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The light ________________ burned out.
  3. I've got to change the light ________________.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. bulb — for light
  3. bulb — for light
  4. ball — a great time
  5. degree — from a university
  6. ball — a dance
  7. drill — the tool
  8. trunk — of a tree
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. bulb — of a plant
  11. cold — an illness
  12. drill — army training
  13. drill — a practice
  14. degree — an amount
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. kid — to tease
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. degree — temperature
  19. kid — child
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. capital — a city
  22. capital — money
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. capital — a big letter

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