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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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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. That was ________________ to happen.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  19. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  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. hand — help
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. cold — not warm
  4. hand — in cards
  5. degree — temperature
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. content — the amount
  9. patient — calm and waiting
  10. court — of law
  11. bound — certain
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. cold — an illness
  14. court — for sport
  15. scale — size or range
  16. bound — tied together
  17. degree — from a university
  18. bound — obliged
  19. content — happy
  20. scale — in music
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. court — of a king
  23. patient — a sick person
  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