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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: fan · spring · mouse · degree · court · capital · cue · ground

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. There's no middle ________________.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  13. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  14. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  21. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. degree — an amount
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. capital — money
  5. court — for sport
  6. ground — a position
  7. spring — a coil
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. cue — for pool
  10. court — of law
  11. degree — from a university
  12. cue — a signal
  13. cue — a hint
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. degree — temperature
  16. capital — a city
  17. ground — crushed
  18. spring — of water
  19. spring — the season
  20. mouse — for a computer
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. court — of a king
  23. ground — the earth
  24. mouse — the animal

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