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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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Word bank
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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: rush · pop · bat · ground · degree · squash · cold · tear

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  19. We're almost out of ________________.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  23. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  24. 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. ground — a position
  2. degree — temperature
  3. degree — from a university
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. tear — to rip
  7. pop — to visit
  8. ground — crushed
  9. tear — from crying
  10. bat — the animal
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — an illness
  13. pop — music
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. squash — to crush
  16. ground — the earth
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. rush — hurry
  19. pop — soda
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. tear — from crying
  22. rush — to hurry
  23. squash — the sport
  24. 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