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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: cold · fall · band · mark · ground · bear · bass · degree

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  8. There's no middle ________________.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  18. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  21. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. ground — crushed
  3. mark — a grade
  4. fall — to drop
  5. band — a ring
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. bear — to put up with
  8. ground — a position
  9. band — a music group
  10. mark — to pay attention
  11. fall — the season
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. degree — from a university
  14. bass — low music
  15. mark — a trace
  16. cold — an illness
  17. bass — the fish
  18. ground — the earth
  19. degree — an amount
  20. fall — to drop
  21. bear — the animal
  22. degree — temperature
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. bear — the animal

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