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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  15. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. degree — from a university
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. shower — to wash
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. wax — to grow
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. degree — an amount
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. file — a document
  14. lean — thin
  15. lean — to bend
  16. file — a tool
  17. file — a line of people
  18. shower — rain

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