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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 120 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. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  2. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. The light ________________ burned out.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I've got to change the light ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. dip — to dunk
  2. bulb — of a plant
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. land — a country
  5. prune — to trim
  6. degree — an amount
  7. dip — a sauce
  8. dip — to sink
  9. wind — moving air
  10. bass — low music
  11. bulb — for light
  12. prune — to trim
  13. land — to come down
  14. bass — the instrument
  15. cold — not warm
  16. bulb — for light
  17. cold — an illness
  18. wind — moving air
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. bass — the fish
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. degree — from a university
  23. land — ground
  24. degree — temperature

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