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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I've got to change the light ________________.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  24. The light ________________ burned out.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. sharp — clever
  5. pitch — a sports field
  6. bass — low music
  7. pitch — completely
  8. cold — not warm
  9. bulb — for light
  10. tear — from crying
  11. bulb — of a plant
  12. bass — the fish
  13. spring — a coil
  14. tear — from crying
  15. degree — temperature
  16. spring — the season
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. degree — an amount
  19. degree — from a university
  20. spring — of water
  21. tear — to rip
  22. cold — an illness
  23. pitch — a sales talk
  24. bulb — for light

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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