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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  18. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  19. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. mate — to breed
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. pitcher — a jug
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. scale — in music
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. dip — to sink
  11. bat — the animal
  12. capital — money
  13. scale — for weighing
  14. capital — a city
  15. scale — size or range
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. dip — to dunk
  18. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  19. sharp — clever
  20. kid — to tease
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. mate — a friend
  23. kid — child
  24. dip — a sauce

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