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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. He works in a ________________ mill.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. Have you met the new head ________________?
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. pitch — a sports field
  4. degree — from a university
  5. saw — past of 'see'
  6. capital — a city
  7. court — of law
  8. saw — the tool
  9. court — of a king
  10. pitch — completely
  11. court — for sport
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. kid — child
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. land — ground
  16. saw — the tool
  17. degree — temperature
  18. kid — to tease
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. land — to come down
  21. land — a country
  22. pitch — a sales talk
  23. degree — an amount
  24. capital — money

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