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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. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  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. rush — hurry
  2. capital — money
  3. ball — a great time
  4. wound — an injury
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. board — a committee
  7. file — a line of people
  8. board — a flat piece
  9. wound — an injury
  10. prune — to trim
  11. file — a document
  12. degree — from a university
  13. prune — the fruit
  14. ball — a dance
  15. file — a tool
  16. board — to get on
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. degree — temperature
  19. prune — to trim
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. capital — a city
  23. ball — a round shape
  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