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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
468
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 · pitcher · land · degree · patient · bark · racket · wake

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  10. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  21. He is an ace ________________.
  22. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. land — to come down
  5. wake — before a funeral
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. wake — to stop sleeping
  8. bark — to shout
  9. patient — calm and waiting
  10. racket — a loud noise
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. land — a country
  13. shower — to wash
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. racket — for tennis
  16. degree — an amount
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. degree — from a university
  19. wake — a trail
  20. racket — for tennis
  21. pitcher — in baseball
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. degree — temperature
  24. shower — rain

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