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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. The ________________ went through the wall.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. degree — from a university
  3. cold — not warm
  4. capital — money
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. spell — letters
  8. shower — rain
  9. cap — of ice
  10. cap — a hat
  11. spell — magic
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. degree — temperature
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. row — a line
  16. capital — a city
  17. nail — on a finger
  18. shower — to wash
  19. cap — a lid
  20. spell — a short time
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. degree — an amount
  23. row — to paddle
  24. cold — an illness

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