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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. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  2. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rule — government
  2. pitch — a sports field
  3. wax — to grow
  4. field — for sport
  5. capital — a city
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. field — a subject
  8. field — farmland
  9. shower — rain
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. shower — to wash
  12. degree — an amount
  13. rule — a law
  14. degree — temperature
  15. rule — to rule out
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. pitch — completely
  18. capital — money
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. degree — from a university
  21. content — the amount
  22. content — happy
  23. pitch — a sales talk
  24. content — videos and posts

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