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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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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: hand · capital · degree · kick · rest · cold · stick · wound

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  15. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  19. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  23. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. capital — a city
  4. hand — in cards
  5. cold — an illness
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. stick — a piece of wood
  8. degree — temperature
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. degree — from a university
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. capital — money
  13. wound — an injury
  14. rest — a break
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. kick — in football
  18. rest — what's left
  19. rest — what's left
  20. cold — not warm
  21. wound — an injury
  22. stick — to attach or keep to
  23. kick — with a leg
  24. hand — help

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