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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: date · capital · mine · bowl · snap · content · degree · race

  1. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  9. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. capital — money
  4. bowl — to roll
  5. race — the arms race
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. bowl — a dish
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. race — a contest
  12. bowl — a football final
  13. degree — an amount
  14. degree — from a university
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. capital — a city
  17. mine — for digging
  18. race — humankind
  19. degree — temperature
  20. content — the amount
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. snap — to click
  24. content — happy

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