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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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. degree — from a university
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. bass — the instrument
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. court — for sport
  8. capital — money
  9. mine — for digging
  10. bass — the fish
  11. court — of law
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. bass — low music
  14. degree — an amount
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. content — happy
  17. content — the amount
  18. stick — to attach or keep to
  19. court — of a king
  20. clip — to cut
  21. clip — a video
  22. clip — for paper
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. capital — a city

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