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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: trunk · capital · race · toast · row · perch · cell · degree

  1. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — the most admired
  2. degree — from a university
  3. race — a contest
  4. degree — an amount
  5. capital — money
  6. row — to paddle
  7. cell — a phone
  8. capital — a city
  9. toast — a drink to someone
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. perch — the fish
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. toast — bread
  14. cell — in biology
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. row — a line
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. degree — temperature
  21. race — the arms race
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. race — humankind
  24. trunk — of a tree

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