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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: plane · root · degree · mine · dip · net · cold · spring

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  5. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The ________________ took off on time.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. spring — the season
  3. net — after costs
  4. root — of a word
  5. root — the cause
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. plane — a tool
  8. root — of a plant
  9. dip — to sink
  10. spring — of water
  11. degree — an amount
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. dip — to dunk
  14. degree — temperature
  15. net — for catching
  16. spring — a coil
  17. plane — an aircraft
  18. mine — for digging
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. cold — an illness
  21. degree — from a university
  22. net — in sport
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. plane — in geometry

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