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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: wound · hand · rest · degree · band · mate · snap · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. Have you found your soul ________________?
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. mate — a friend
  3. degree — temperature
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. snap — to click
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. rest — what's left
  11. wound — an injury
  12. hand — help
  13. mate — to breed
  14. wound — an injury
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cold — not warm
  17. band — a music group
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. degree — an amount
  20. rest — a break
  21. band — a ring
  22. rest — what's left
  23. mate — a partner
  24. hand — in cards

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