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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. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  7. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. This piece is in a major ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. race — the arms race
  2. ground — crushed
  3. capital — money
  4. ground — a position
  5. degree — from a university
  6. key — for a lock
  7. key — the most important part
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. race — humankind
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. scale — size or range
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. capital — a city
  14. degree — an amount
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. row — a line
  17. race — a contest
  18. game — wild animals
  19. game — a match
  20. key — in music
  21. row — to paddle
  22. scale — in music
  23. degree — temperature
  24. ground — the earth

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