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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 120 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. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  12. That was ________________ to happen.
  13. What do you think of the new ________________?
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. bound — tied together
  2. kid — to tease
  3. perch — the fish
  4. cabinet — ministers
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. net — in sport
  7. degree — from a university
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. net — after costs
  10. net — for catching
  11. cabinet — a cupboard
  12. bound — certain
  13. cabinet — ministers
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. bound — obliged
  17. capital — a city
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. capital — money
  20. degree — temperature
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. kid — child
  23. mine — for digging
  24. degree — an amount

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