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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 120 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: shower · wound · wind · kid · vault · land · foot · degree

  1. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  7. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. vault — an arched ceiling
  2. wind — moving air
  3. land — to come down
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. degree — an amount
  6. vault — a safe
  7. vault — in gymnastics
  8. wind — moving air
  9. shower — to wash
  10. land — a country
  11. foot — part of the body
  12. degree — temperature
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. degree — from a university
  15. foot — the bottom
  16. land — ground
  17. shower — rain
  18. foot — a measure
  19. wound — an injury
  20. kid — child
  21. kid — to tease
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. wound — an injury
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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