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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. My father caught me by the ________________.
  9. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  10. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  11. Where did you ________________ them?
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. land — ground
  4. mug — a cup
  5. cell — a phone
  6. capital — money
  7. degree — an amount
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. perch — the fish
  11. mug — to rob
  12. cell — in biology
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. wound — an injury
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. degree — temperature
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. arm — a part of something
  19. land — a country
  20. land — to come down
  21. mug — a face
  22. wound — an injury
  23. capital — a city
  24. perch — for a bird

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