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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: sharp · clip · field · degree · capital · wake · ruler · bulb

  1. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. I've got to change the light ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  23. The light ________________ burned out.
  24. He's quite ________________, isn't he?

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. degree — from a university
  3. field — for sport
  4. ruler — for measuring
  5. capital — a city
  6. clip — a video
  7. field — farmland
  8. degree — an amount
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. bulb — of a plant
  11. clip — for paper
  12. ruler — a monarch
  13. wake — a trail
  14. degree — temperature
  15. clip — to cut
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. bulb — for light
  19. capital — money
  20. field — a subject
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. ruler — for measuring
  23. bulb — for light
  24. sharp — clever

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