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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 120 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: degree · fall · cold · spring · track · snap · row · net

  1. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. degree — from a university
  3. net — for catching
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. net — after costs
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. row — to paddle
  8. row — a line
  9. spring — the season
  10. track — to keep track
  11. snap — to click
  12. cold — an illness
  13. fall — to drop
  14. degree — an amount
  15. fall — to drop
  16. track — a song
  17. degree — temperature
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. spring — a coil
  21. cold — not warm
  22. fall — the season
  23. spring — of water
  24. track — a path

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