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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: degree · race · chair · ball · lie · patient · shower · drill

  1. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  13. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  21. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  24. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. chair — a leader
  3. degree — an amount
  4. shower — to wash
  5. degree — temperature
  6. ball — a dance
  7. race — a contest
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. shower — rain
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. lie — an untruth
  14. race — the arms race
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. degree — from a university
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. drill — a practice
  19. race — humankind
  20. patient — calm and waiting
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. drill — army training
  23. lie — to recline
  24. drill — the tool

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