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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. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. spell — a short time
  2. degree — an amount
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. bass — low music
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — an illness
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. spring — of water
  9. snap — to click
  10. rest — a break
  11. spring — a coil
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. cap — a lid
  14. degree — temperature
  15. spring — the season
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. cap — a hat
  18. bass — the fish
  19. cap — of ice
  20. spell — magic
  21. rest — what's left
  22. rest — what's left
  23. degree — from a university
  24. spell — letters

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