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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  3. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  4. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. That was ________________ to happen.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. We're almost out of ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  20. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  23. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  24. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. cap — a lid
  3. bound — obliged
  4. kick — in football
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. bound — certain
  7. content — the amount
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. degree — from a university
  11. pop — soda
  12. degree — temperature
  13. content — happy
  14. wound — an injury
  15. cap — of ice
  16. pop — to visit
  17. wound — an injury
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. chip — to eat
  20. pop — music
  21. cap — a hat
  22. bound — tied together
  23. chip — for betting
  24. chip — in a computer

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