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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: degree · saw · squash · dip · wound · bowl · cold · land

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. She's very handy with a ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  14. He works in a ________________ mill.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. cold — not warm
  3. land — ground
  4. saw — past of 'see'
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. land — a country
  8. squash — the sport
  9. degree — from a university
  10. saw — the tool
  11. cold — an illness
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. bowl — to roll
  14. saw — the tool
  15. squash — to crush
  16. wound — an injury
  17. dip — to dunk
  18. wound — an injury
  19. land — to come down
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. degree — temperature
  22. degree — an amount
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. dip — to sink

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