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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 116 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. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. The ________________ took off on time.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. ground — crushed
  3. march — music
  4. bore — gave birth
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. ground — a position
  7. march — the month
  8. march — the month
  9. mine — for digging
  10. degree — temperature
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. plane — an aircraft
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. bore — to tire
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. capital — money
  17. bore — to drill
  18. ground — the earth
  19. plane — in geometry
  20. degree — from a university
  21. shower — rain
  22. shower — to wash
  23. plane — a tool
  24. capital — a city

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