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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  7. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  8. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  22. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  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. capital — money
  3. mark — a trace
  4. wind — moving air
  5. degree — from a university
  6. craft — boats
  7. squash — the sport
  8. mark — to pay attention
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. race — a contest
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. degree — temperature
  13. wind — moving air
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. squash — to crush
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. craft — a skill
  18. content — the amount
  19. race — humankind
  20. content — happy
  21. craft — a handicraft
  22. mark — a grade
  23. race — the arms race
  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