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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. net — for catching
  3. degree — temperature
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. spring — the season
  6. capital — a city
  7. wake — a trail
  8. clip — to cut
  9. wake — to stop sleeping
  10. net — after costs
  11. shower — rain
  12. pound — to hit hard
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. degree — an amount
  15. shower — to wash
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. spring — of water
  18. clip — a video
  19. degree — from a university
  20. spring — a coil
  21. pound — a weight
  22. net — in sport
  23. capital — money
  24. clip — for paper

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