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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. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. capital — a city
  4. lean — thin
  5. capital — money
  6. lean — to rest against
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. mine — for digging
  9. game — a match
  10. clip — a video
  11. wound — an injury
  12. lean — to bend
  13. game — wild animals
  14. degree — temperature
  15. clip — to cut
  16. wound — an injury
  17. degree — from a university
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. squash — the sport
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. degree — an amount
  22. clip — for paper
  23. squash — to crush
  24. game — a kind of play

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