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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: kid · pitcher · stem · capital · spell · degree · shower · suit

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. When will it ________________ you to start?
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. spell — letters
  3. spell — magic
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. suit — clothes
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. spell — a short time
  9. kid — to tease
  10. kid — child
  11. suit — to fit
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. shower — to wash
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. stem — to come from
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. degree — an amount
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. shower — rain
  20. capital — money
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. degree — from a university
  23. suit — in cards
  24. degree — temperature

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