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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: ground · cold · bass · net · tear · swing · bound · wound

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  8. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. David sat on the ________________.
  15. That was ________________ to happen.
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. tear — to rip
  3. net — after costs
  4. cold — an illness
  5. bass — low music
  6. wound — an injury
  7. ground — crushed
  8. swing — music
  9. tear — from crying
  10. ground — the earth
  11. net — for catching
  12. bound — tied together
  13. tear — from crying
  14. swing — to play on
  15. bound — certain
  16. net — in sport
  17. bound — obliged
  18. ground — a position
  19. wound — an injury
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. bass — the fish
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. swing — in golf

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