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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. He took the fish out of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. kid — to tease
  3. degree — temperature
  4. capital — a city
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. hand — in cards
  7. degree — an amount
  8. capital — money
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. club — for dancing
  11. game — wild animals
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. kid — child
  14. degree — from a university
  15. game — a match
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. club — for golf
  19. scale — in music
  20. scale — size or range
  21. net — in sport
  22. net — after costs
  23. club — a group
  24. net — for catching

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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