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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. That must've been a ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. clip — a video
  5. degree — from a university
  6. rush — to hurry
  7. degree — an amount
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. shower — rain
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. degree — temperature
  12. bat — the animal
  13. squash — the sport
  14. shower — to wash
  15. court — for sport
  16. clip — for paper
  17. squash — to crush
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. capital — a city
  20. court — of law
  21. capital — money
  22. clip — to cut
  23. rush — a thrill
  24. court — of a king

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