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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 116 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. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  2. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  3. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. object — an aim
  2. object — to protest
  3. object — a thing
  4. capital — a city
  5. fine — all right
  6. degree — temperature
  7. scale — size or range
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. shower — rain
  10. fine — high quality
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. wound — an injury
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. patient — calm and waiting
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. scale — in music
  18. wound — an injury
  19. shower — to wash
  20. degree — from a university
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. capital — money
  23. fine — a penalty
  24. degree — an amount

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