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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 116 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: perch · shower · degree · nail · hand · cold · bulb · press

  1. The ________________ went through the wall.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  6. The light ________________ burned out.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  16. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. Did you ________________ the button?
  21. I've got to change the light ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. cold — an illness
  3. degree — from a university
  4. hand — in cards
  5. bulb — of a plant
  6. bulb — for light
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. press — newspapers
  9. perch — the fish
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. degree — an amount
  12. press — a publisher
  13. shower — to wash
  14. cold — not warm
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. nail — on a finger
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. hand — help
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. press — to push
  21. bulb — for light
  22. degree — temperature
  23. shower — rain
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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