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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cue · fork · snap · capital · degree · cold

  1. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  2. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a hint
  2. cue — a signal
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. fork — in a road
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. capital — money
  9. degree — an amount
  10. snap — to click
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — an illness
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. cue — for pool
  15. degree — temperature
  16. capital — a city
  17. fork — to eat with
  18. degree — from a university

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