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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: firm · cold · coach · mark · content · stand · degree · kid

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  4. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  5. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  10. I can't ________________ this cold.
  11. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  12. Have you met the new head ________________?
  13. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  14. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  15. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. content — happy
  3. mark — a grade
  4. mark — to pay attention
  5. firm — decided
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. degree — temperature
  8. degree — an amount
  9. firm — steady
  10. stand — to bear
  11. stand — on your feet
  12. coach — a trainer
  13. stand — for spectators
  14. mark — a trace
  15. firm — a company
  16. cold — not warm
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. content — the amount
  20. kid — to tease
  21. cold — an illness
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. kid — child
  24. coach — pulled by horses

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