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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
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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: bear · date · clip · cold · tube · march · degree · fall

  1. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  9. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  12. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  20. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  21. Have you settled on a ________________?
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — a container
  2. march — the month
  3. clip — to cut
  4. degree — an amount
  5. fall — to drop
  6. degree — temperature
  7. clip — for paper
  8. bear — the animal
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. degree — from a university
  11. date — the fruit
  12. bear — the animal
  13. cold — not warm
  14. clip — a video
  15. tube — the underground
  16. march — the month
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. fall — to drop
  20. bear — to put up with
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. march — music
  23. cold — an illness
  24. fall — the season

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