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

Word bank: cap · degree · race · capital · prune · shower · row · scale

  1. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  2. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — to paddle
  2. race — humankind
  3. prune — to trim
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. shower — rain
  7. prune — to trim
  8. degree — temperature
  9. row — a line
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. capital — money
  12. cap — a hat
  13. race — a contest
  14. scale — in music
  15. cap — a lid
  16. cap — of ice
  17. shower — to wash
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. degree — an amount
  20. scale — size or range
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. capital — a city
  23. degree — from a university
  24. race — the arms race

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