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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: shower · mine · degree · bowl · pitcher · file · patient · court

  1. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a football final
  2. degree — an amount
  3. bowl — to roll
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. shower — to wash
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. mine — for digging
  10. bowl — a dish
  11. shower — rain
  12. file — a line of people
  13. court — for sport
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. file — a tool
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. file — a document
  20. court — of a king
  21. degree — from a university
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. court — of law
  24. degree — temperature

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