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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. I've got to change the light ________________.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. How do you ________________ your surname?
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. The light ________________ burned out.
  20. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. spell — magic
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. game — a match
  6. bulb — for light
  7. spell — a short time
  8. degree — temperature
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. stem — to come from
  11. bulb — of a plant
  12. content — happy
  13. kid — child
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. capital — money
  16. degree — an amount
  17. spell — letters
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. bulb — for light
  20. stem — a stem cell
  21. degree — from a university
  22. capital — a city
  23. content — the amount
  24. game — wild animals

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