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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: rock · cold · spell · bowl · capital · degree · wind · chip

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  8. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  9. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  10. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  13. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  14. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. wind — moving air
  3. cold — an illness
  4. capital — a city
  5. chip — in a computer
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. bowl — a football final
  8. bowl — a dish
  9. rock — a stone
  10. rock — to move gently
  11. spell — a short time
  12. chip — for betting
  13. chip — to eat
  14. bowl — to roll
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. rock — music
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. capital — money
  19. spell — magic
  20. degree — temperature
  21. degree — from a university
  22. cold — not warm
  23. degree — an amount
  24. spell — letters

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