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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. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. Don't do anything ________________.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. can — to be able to
  2. hand — help
  3. degree — temperature
  4. degree — an amount
  5. can — a tin
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. capital — money
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. can — a tin
  12. wound — an injury
  13. hand — in cards
  14. pitch — completely
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. degree — from a university
  17. wax — to grow
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. capital — a city
  20. rash — hasty
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. pitch — a sales talk
  23. wound — an injury
  24. rash — a series

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