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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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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. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  3. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  10. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  11. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  12. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. tube — in a tire
  3. pass — to spend time
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. mine — for digging
  6. tube — the underground
  7. tube — a container
  8. cold — an illness
  9. bass — the instrument
  10. pass — to succeed
  11. bass — low music
  12. pass — a permit
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. degree — temperature
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. cold — not warm
  17. degree — an amount
  18. degree — from a university

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