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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 120 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: cold · capital · staff · net · squash · track · degree · game

  1. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. squash — to crush
  3. staff — employees
  4. game — wild animals
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. degree — temperature
  7. cold — an illness
  8. track — to keep track
  9. net — in sport
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. capital — a city
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. track — a song
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. capital — money
  16. staff — employees
  17. cold — not warm
  18. net — for catching
  19. staff — a stick
  20. degree — from a university
  21. net — after costs
  22. game — a match
  23. degree — an amount
  24. track — a path

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