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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 116 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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  15. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  19. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  23. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. shower — to wash
  3. degree — from a university
  4. stick — to attach or keep to
  5. capital — a city
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. capital — money
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. bound — certain
  10. shower — rain
  11. swing — music
  12. degree — temperature
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bound — tied together
  15. wake — a trail
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — an illness
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. wake — before a funeral
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. swing — to play on
  22. bound — obliged
  23. wake — to stop sleeping
  24. swing — in golf

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