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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: cold · degree · wound · file · capital · prune · rash · swing

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. Don't do anything ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  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. cold — the Cold War
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. capital — money
  4. wound — an injury
  5. wound — an injury
  6. degree — from a university
  7. rash — hasty
  8. file — a tool
  9. file — a line of people
  10. cold — not warm
  11. swing — to play on
  12. file — a document
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. prune — to trim
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. rash — a series
  17. swing — music
  18. cold — an illness
  19. swing — in golf
  20. capital — a city
  21. prune — to trim
  22. degree — an amount
  23. prune — the fruit
  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