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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: cold · degree · date · race · march · bark

  1. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. march — the month
  4. bark — of a tree
  5. race — a contest
  6. march — music
  7. march — the month
  8. race — the arms race
  9. degree — temperature
  10. cold — not warm
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. bark — to shout
  14. degree — an amount
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. race — humankind
  17. cold — an illness
  18. degree — from a university

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