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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  3. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Have you met the new head ________________?
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. pound — to hit hard
  3. present — there
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. court — of a king
  7. degree — temperature
  8. degree — an amount
  9. spell — letters
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. file — a tool
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. capital — a city
  14. spell — a short time
  15. file — a document
  16. present — a gift
  17. capital — money
  18. court — for sport
  19. file — a line of people
  20. pound — a weight
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. spell — magic
  23. present — the time now
  24. court — of law

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