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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. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. mate — a partner
  3. degree — from a university
  4. mine — for digging
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. content — happy
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. ground — the earth
  9. degree — an amount
  10. content — the amount
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. mate — to breed
  13. degree — temperature
  14. kid — child
  15. rock — music
  16. kid — to tease
  17. cold — an illness
  18. rock — to move gently
  19. ground — a position
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. mate — a friend
  22. ground — crushed
  23. rock — a stone
  24. mine — an explosive

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