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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. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. Have you found your soul ________________?
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. mate — a friend
  4. degree — an amount
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. mate — to breed
  7. degree — from a university
  8. fine — high quality
  9. plane — a tool
  10. plane — in geometry
  11. cold — an illness
  12. mate — a partner
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. cold — not warm
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. capital — a city
  22. fine — a penalty
  23. capital — money
  24. degree — temperature

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