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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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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: degree · game · capital · cold · branch · bark · pound · race

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. degree — an amount
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. capital — money
  6. degree — temperature
  7. race — humankind
  8. bark — of a tree
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. game — wild animals
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. race — the arms race
  15. cold — an illness
  16. pound — to hit hard
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. bark — to shout
  19. game — a match
  20. race — a contest
  21. degree — from a university
  22. cold — not warm
  23. branch — a division
  24. pound — a weight

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