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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. pop — music
  3. capital — a city
  4. present — there
  5. tube — the underground
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. land — ground
  8. scale — for weighing
  9. pop — to visit
  10. capital — money
  11. tube — a container
  12. scale — in music
  13. kid — child
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. pop — soda
  16. scale — size or range
  17. sharp — clever
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. kid — to tease
  20. present — a gift
  21. present — the time now
  22. land — to come down
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. land — a country

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