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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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  5. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  6. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  23. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  24. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — temperature
  3. file — a tool
  4. racket — for tennis
  5. craft — a handicraft
  6. craft — boats
  7. spring — a coil
  8. board — a committee
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. spring — of water
  11. capital — a city
  12. file — a document
  13. clip — to cut
  14. degree — from a university
  15. spring — the season
  16. file — a line of people
  17. racket — a loud noise
  18. capital — money
  19. clip — for paper
  20. craft — a skill
  21. clip — a video
  22. racket — for tennis
  23. board — a flat piece
  24. board — to get on

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