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

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. wound — an injury
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. cap — of ice
  8. cap — a hat
  9. wound — an injury
  10. degree — temperature
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. patient — calm and waiting
  13. wind — moving air
  14. band — a ring
  15. cap — a lid
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. cold — an illness
  19. wind — moving air
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. degree — from a university
  23. band — a music group
  24. bark — to shout

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