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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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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: bank · hand · cold · race · pitch · march · bulb · degree

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The light ________________ burned out.
  15. I've got to change the light ________________.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. race — the arms race
  4. race — humankind
  5. march — the month
  6. cold — an illness
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. degree — an amount
  9. race — a contest
  10. degree — from a university
  11. march — music
  12. bank — for money
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bulb — for light
  15. bulb — for light
  16. degree — temperature
  17. bulb — of a plant
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. bank — for money
  20. march — the month
  21. bank — of a river
  22. hand — in cards
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. pitch — completely

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