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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. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. He is an ace ________________.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. degree — temperature
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. cell — a phone
  6. pitcher — in baseball
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. spring — the season
  9. race — the arms race
  10. race — a contest
  11. court — for sport
  12. capital — money
  13. court — of law
  14. degree — an amount
  15. pitch — a sales talk
  16. spring — of water
  17. cell — in biology
  18. spring — a coil
  19. court — of a king
  20. capital — a city
  21. degree — from a university
  22. race — humankind
  23. pitch — completely
  24. pitcher — a jug

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