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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  11. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. The tickets are free of ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. The King held a masked ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. ball — a great time
  5. ball — a round shape
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. game — a match
  8. spring — the season
  9. capital — a city
  10. charge — electricity
  11. charge — in control
  12. capital — money
  13. clip — a video
  14. clip — to cut
  15. game — wild animals
  16. clip — for paper
  17. wake — a trail
  18. charge — a price
  19. degree — from a university
  20. ball — a dance
  21. spring — a coil
  22. degree — temperature
  23. spring — of water
  24. wake — before a funeral

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