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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: court · file · cold · march · tube · cap · bear · degree

  1. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  14. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. degree — temperature
  4. court — for sport
  5. bear — the animal
  6. cap — a lid
  7. court — of a king
  8. degree — from a university
  9. file — a document
  10. cap — of ice
  11. cold — not warm
  12. tube — a container
  13. tube — in a tire
  14. bear — to put up with
  15. march — music
  16. march — the month
  17. bear — the animal
  18. file — a line of people
  19. tube — the underground
  20. degree — an amount
  21. cold — an illness
  22. march — the month
  23. file — a tool
  24. court — of law

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