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

Word bank: cabinet · cold · wound · patient · degree · race

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. What do you think of the new ________________?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  17. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. degree — an amount
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. degree — from a university
  5. cabinet — ministers
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — not warm
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. wound — an injury
  10. cabinet — ministers
  11. degree — temperature
  12. cabinet — a cupboard
  13. race — the arms race
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. patient — calm and waiting
  17. race — a contest
  18. race — humankind

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