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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 116 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: object · band · bass · march · content · spell · ground · degree

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. object — to protest
  3. content — the amount
  4. ground — a position
  5. spell — letters
  6. bass — the fish
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. march — the month
  9. object — an aim
  10. band — a ring
  11. march — the month
  12. march — music
  13. spell — a short time
  14. bass — low music
  15. ground — the earth
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. degree — temperature
  18. band — a music group
  19. degree — an amount
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. spell — magic
  22. degree — from a university
  23. object — a thing
  24. ground — crushed

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