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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: rush · degree · cold · season · shower · pitcher · straw · scale

  1. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. Did you ________________ the meat?
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. That must've been a ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. degree — an amount
  4. shower — rain
  5. cold — an illness
  6. scale — size or range
  7. scale — in music
  8. season — to add flavour
  9. degree — from a university
  10. rush — hurry
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. rush — a thrill
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. degree — temperature
  17. rush — to hurry
  18. cold — not warm
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. season — in sport
  23. shower — to wash
  24. straw — dry grass

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