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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. There's no middle ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  18. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  22. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. cold — an illness
  3. ground — crushed
  4. capital — money
  5. arm — part of the body
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. kid — child
  8. cold — not warm
  9. wake — a trail
  10. degree — from a university
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. degree — an amount
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. kid — to tease
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. capital — a city
  17. wake — to stop sleeping
  18. arm — a part of something
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. ground — the earth
  21. hide — animal skin
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. degree — temperature

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