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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. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. Have you met the new head ________________?
  13. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. land — ground
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. field — for sport
  5. capital — a city
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. degree — from a university
  8. field — a subject
  9. land — to come down
  10. degree — temperature
  11. prune — to trim
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. snap — to click
  14. capital — money
  15. game — a match
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. field — farmland
  18. land — a country
  19. game — wild animals
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. prune — to trim
  22. degree — an amount
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. game — a kind of play

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