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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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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: degree · fork · bound · sharp · cold · swing · bat · race

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  6. That was ________________ to happen.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — temperature
  3. fork — to eat with
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. bound — obliged
  6. bound — certain
  7. race — a contest
  8. bound — tied together
  9. cold — not warm
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. race — the arms race
  13. degree — from a university
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. sharp — clever
  16. swing — to play on
  17. bat — the animal
  18. swing — music
  19. cold — an illness
  20. swing — in golf
  21. fork — in a road
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. race — humankind
  24. cold — the Cold War

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