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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 124 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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: band · degree · cold · race · mate · content

  1. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. degree — temperature
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. mate — to breed
  5. race — the arms race
  6. mate — a partner
  7. race — humankind
  8. band — a music group
  9. race — a contest
  10. band — a ring
  11. content — the amount
  12. mate — a friend
  13. content — happy
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — not warm
  18. degree — an amount

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