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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: degree · chair · squash · pass · cold · mine · content · lean

  1. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  7. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  8. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  13. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  16. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. chair — a leader
  2. cold — not warm
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. cold — an illness
  5. mine — for digging
  6. lean — to bend
  7. pass — to spend time
  8. content — videos and posts
  9. lean — to rest against
  10. content — the amount
  11. degree — an amount
  12. squash — the vegetable
  13. content — happy
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. lean — thin
  16. pass — to succeed
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. squash — the sport
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. degree — temperature
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. degree — from a university
  23. pass — a permit
  24. squash — to crush

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