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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 116 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: cold · tear · chip · game · field · bass · plane · degree

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  8. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. The ________________ took off on time.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  24. I play ________________ in a jazz band.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. plane — a tool
  4. degree — from a university
  5. cold — an illness
  6. field — farmland
  7. chip — for betting
  8. tear — from crying
  9. game — a match
  10. field — for sport
  11. bass — the fish
  12. tear — to rip
  13. bass — low music
  14. plane — an aircraft
  15. chip — to eat
  16. tear — from crying
  17. plane — in geometry
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. game — wild animals
  20. degree — temperature
  21. cold — not warm
  22. field — a subject
  23. chip — in a computer
  24. bass — the instrument

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