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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 120 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 · mine · cold · season · bark · pop · firm · saw

  1. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  12. You don't need to ________________ round.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. She's very handy with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — decided
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. degree — from a university
  4. firm — steady
  5. bark — to shout
  6. degree — temperature
  7. pop — soda
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cold — an illness
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. firm — a company
  12. pop — to visit
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. season — in sport
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. degree — an amount
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. season — of the year
  21. pop — music
  22. saw — the tool
  23. mine — for digging
  24. saw — the tool

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