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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: content · sharp · bat · degree · land · march · dip · cold

  1. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. march — music
  3. dip — a sauce
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. degree — from a university
  6. cold — not warm
  7. land — ground
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. sharp — clever
  10. content — the amount
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. degree — an amount
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. content — happy
  15. land — a country
  16. land — to come down
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. degree — temperature
  19. bat — the animal
  20. dip — to sink
  21. march — the month
  22. march — the month
  23. dip — to dunk
  24. cold — an illness

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