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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. net — after costs
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. row — a line
  5. mate — to breed
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. capital — money
  9. mate — a friend
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. degree — from a university
  12. degree — temperature
  13. degree — an amount
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. trunk — of an elephant
  16. shower — rain
  17. hide — to keep secret
  18. net — for catching
  19. row — to paddle
  20. capital — a city
  21. net — in sport
  22. hide — animal skin
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — to wash

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