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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. last — final
  3. cold — an illness
  4. tear — to rip
  5. degree — temperature
  6. ground — crushed
  7. last — to go on
  8. tear — from crying
  9. degree — from a university
  10. tear — from crying
  11. ground — the earth
  12. ground — a position
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. degree — an amount
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. last — finally
  18. cold — not warm

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