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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  9. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  10. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  11. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. cold — an illness
  3. rash — on the skin
  4. degree — temperature
  5. rest — a break
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. degree — an amount
  8. rest — what's left
  9. rest — what's left
  10. bore — to drill
  11. bore — to tire
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. cold — not warm
  14. rash — hasty
  15. capital — a city
  16. spell — a short time
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. degree — from a university
  19. bore — gave birth
  20. game — a match
  21. spell — magic
  22. rash — a series
  23. game — wild animals
  24. capital — money

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