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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 ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. My father caught me by the ________________.
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. capital — a city
  3. stock — shares
  4. clip — for paper
  5. net — for catching
  6. ground — crushed
  7. degree — temperature
  8. ground — a position
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. wound — an injury
  11. arm — part of the body
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. net — after costs
  14. degree — an amount
  15. clip — to cut
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. capital — money
  18. clip — a video
  19. wound — an injury
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. degree — from a university
  22. stock — goods
  23. net — in sport
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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