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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: content · degree · saw · ball · bass · patient · hand · capital

  1. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. He works in a ________________ mill.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. She's very handy with a ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. ball — a round shape
  4. bass — the fish
  5. saw — the tool
  6. content — the amount
  7. bass — low music
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. content — happy
  10. hand — help
  11. hand — in cards
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. degree — from a university
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. ball — a dance
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. degree — temperature
  18. ball — a great time
  19. capital — money
  20. degree — an amount
  21. saw — the tool
  22. capital — a city
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. patient — a sick person

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