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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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 · game · degree · chair · mine · march · firm · row

  1. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. firm — a company
  4. chair — a leader
  5. march — the month
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. game — a match
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. firm — steady
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. cold — not warm
  12. mine — for digging
  13. degree — from a university
  14. row — to paddle
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. cold — an illness
  18. firm — decided
  19. degree — an amount
  20. degree — temperature
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. march — the month
  23. row — a line
  24. march — music

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