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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 116 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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. That was ________________ to happen.
  13. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. degree — temperature
  5. stock — shares
  6. row — to paddle
  7. stock — goods
  8. track — a song
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. last — to go on
  11. track — to keep track
  12. bound — certain
  13. track — a path
  14. bound — obliged
  15. bound — tied together
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. row — a line
  18. capital — a city
  19. cold — an illness
  20. capital — money
  21. last — finally
  22. degree — from a university
  23. last — final
  24. cold — not warm

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