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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 124 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: cold · date · file · ground · degree · bound · staff · net

  1. There's no middle ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. That was ________________ to happen.
  4. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  5. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  8. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  9. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Have you settled on a ________________?
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. bound — certain
  4. staff — a stick
  5. bound — obliged
  6. cold — not warm
  7. staff — employees
  8. date — the fruit
  9. bound — tied together
  10. file — a line of people
  11. net — after costs
  12. ground — the earth
  13. file — a tool
  14. ground — crushed
  15. degree — temperature
  16. degree — an amount
  17. net — in sport
  18. net — for catching
  19. cold — an illness
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. file — a document
  22. degree — from a university
  23. staff — employees
  24. date — on the calendar

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