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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. drill — a practice
  3. degree — from a university
  4. staff — employees
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. staff — a stick
  7. degree — an amount
  8. capital — a city
  9. capital — money
  10. drill — the tool
  11. spring — the season
  12. mine — for digging
  13. prune — to trim
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. hand — in cards
  16. prune — to trim
  17. degree — temperature
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. hand — help
  20. spring — a coil
  21. drill — army training
  22. staff — employees
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. spring — of water

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