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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 second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  19. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  20. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. ground — a position
  4. degree — from a university
  5. wound — an injury
  6. ground — crushed
  7. cold — not warm
  8. cold — an illness
  9. capital — a city
  10. chest — of your body
  11. bowl — to roll
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. chest — a box
  14. wound — an injury
  15. pitch — a sales talk
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. degree — temperature
  18. chest — of your body
  19. pitch — completely
  20. bowl — a dish
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. degree — an amount
  24. ground — the earth

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