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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. net — after costs
  3. pass — to succeed
  4. net — in sport
  5. degree — temperature
  6. wound — an injury
  7. degree — from a university
  8. net — for catching
  9. pound — for dogs
  10. cold — an illness
  11. spring — a coil
  12. pass — a permit
  13. spring — of water
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. spring — the season
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. drill — the tool
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. drill — a practice
  20. degree — an amount
  21. pass — to spend time
  22. drill — army training
  23. wound — an injury
  24. pound — a weight

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