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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 116 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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Word bank
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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. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  2. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  19. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  20. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — thin
  2. dip — a sauce
  3. capital — money
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. degree — from a university
  6. kid — to tease
  7. cell — a phone
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. wound — an injury
  12. degree — an amount
  13. wound — an injury
  14. root — of a plant
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. kid — child
  17. capital — a city
  18. root — of a word
  19. lean — to rest against
  20. lean — to bend
  21. cell — in biology
  22. root — the cause
  23. degree — temperature
  24. dip — to sink

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