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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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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: fan · race · ruler · degree · mine · root · cold · capital

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  7. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  8. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  15. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  19. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  20. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. degree — from a university
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. mine — for digging
  7. root — of a plant
  8. ruler — for measuring
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. capital — a city
  11. degree — temperature
  12. race — a contest
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. race — humankind
  15. root — of a word
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. degree — an amount
  18. race — the arms race
  19. root — the cause
  20. ruler — a monarch
  21. cold — an illness
  22. cold — not warm
  23. ruler — for measuring
  24. capital — money

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