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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. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. This piece is in a major ________________.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  21. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. degree — an amount
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. pop — music
  5. key — the most important part
  6. tube — a container
  7. tube — the underground
  8. cold — not warm
  9. pop — to visit
  10. degree — temperature
  11. pop — soda
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. key — for a lock
  15. capital — money
  16. degree — from a university
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. key — in music
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. stem — a stem cell
  21. snap — to click
  22. capital — a city
  23. cold — an illness
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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