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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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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: straw · race · degree · land · snap · rush · bound · cold

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. That was ________________ to happen.
  13. That must've been a ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. land — ground
  3. race — a contest
  4. race — humankind
  5. rush — hurry
  6. cold — not warm
  7. degree — temperature
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. bound — tied together
  10. cold — an illness
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. bound — certain
  13. rush — a thrill
  14. land — to come down
  15. race — the arms race
  16. degree — an amount
  17. snap — to click
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. bound — obliged
  22. land — a country
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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