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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The ________________ took off on time.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. degree — an amount
  3. prune — to trim
  4. march — music
  5. march — the month
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. face — to confront
  8. prune — to trim
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. face — to point toward
  11. file — a line of people
  12. capital — money
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. capital — a city
  16. degree — temperature
  17. march — the month
  18. mine — for digging
  19. file — a tool
  20. degree — from a university
  21. face — part of the head
  22. file — a document
  23. plane — an aircraft
  24. plane — a tool

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