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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 · trunk · wave · fall · straw · net · mate · cold

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  12. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  17. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  18. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. degree — an amount
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. cold — not warm
  5. degree — from a university
  6. net — in sport
  7. net — for catching
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. net — after costs
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. fall — to drop
  12. fall — to drop
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. degree — temperature
  15. mate — a partner
  16. wave — a sudden rise
  17. mate — a friend
  18. wave — with your hand
  19. cold — an illness
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. fall — the season
  24. wave — of the sea

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