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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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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: chair · cell · capital · roll · degree · band · racket · last

  1. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. We're on a ________________ here.
  9. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. False peace will not ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. capital — a city
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. last — final
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. band — a ring
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. roll — on a roll
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. capital — money
  11. racket — a loud noise
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. band — a music group
  14. cell — a phone
  15. roll — a list
  16. degree — temperature
  17. cell — in biology
  18. racket — for tennis
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. last — to go on
  21. degree — from a university
  22. chair — a leader
  23. degree — an amount
  24. roll — a cake

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