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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. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — in football
  2. degree — an amount
  3. shower — to wash
  4. wave — a sudden rise
  5. race — a contest
  6. wave — of the sea
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. capital — money
  10. degree — temperature
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. shower — rain
  15. kick — with a leg
  16. degree — from a university
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. branch — a division
  19. capital — a city
  20. wave — with your hand
  21. race — humankind
  22. race — the arms race
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. patient — a sick person

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