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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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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Have you settled on a ________________?
  19. She's very handy with a ________________.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. prune — to trim
  4. date — the fruit
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. saw — the tool
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. prune — to trim
  10. kid — child
  11. cell — a phone
  12. cell — in biology
  13. capital — a city
  14. degree — from a university
  15. tube — the underground
  16. degree — temperature
  17. kid — to tease
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. saw — the tool
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. capital — money
  23. tube — a container
  24. prune — the fruit

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