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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  6. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  22. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. He's quite ________________, isn't he?

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. degree — an amount
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. fan — to cool the air
  6. track — to keep track
  7. capital — money
  8. cold — an illness
  9. degree — temperature
  10. degree — from a university
  11. chip — to eat
  12. kid — child
  13. cold — not warm
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. track — a song
  17. chip — for betting
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. track — a path
  23. kid — to tease
  24. sharp — clever

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