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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 120 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: bass · row · root · coach · sharp · land · cold · degree

  1. Have you met the new head ________________?
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. land — a country
  5. root — the cause
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. bass — low music
  8. land — to come down
  9. sharp — clever
  10. cold — not warm
  11. root — of a plant
  12. row — a line
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. cold — an illness
  15. bass — the fish
  16. root — of a word
  17. degree — from a university
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. degree — an amount
  21. degree — temperature
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. land — ground
  24. row — to paddle

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