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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  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. degree — an amount
  2. capital — a city
  3. mine — for digging
  4. march — the month
  5. perch — for a bird
  6. degree — temperature
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. trunk — of a car
  10. march — music
  11. degree — from a university
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. kick — in football
  14. drill — a practice
  15. drill — the tool
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. perch — the fish
  19. march — the month
  20. kick — a thrill
  21. drill — army training
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. trunk — of a tree
  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