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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: game · hand · pitcher · prune · straw · capital · degree · bear

  1. He is an ace ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — in baseball
  2. hand — help
  3. degree — from a university
  4. straw — dry grass
  5. degree — temperature
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. game — a match
  9. game — wild animals
  10. prune — to trim
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. capital — a city
  14. degree — an amount
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. bear — the animal
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. capital — money
  19. prune — to trim
  20. hand — in cards
  21. bear — to put up with
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. bear — the animal
  24. hand — part of the body

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