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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: ground · kick · bowl · spring · race · cold · sharp · degree

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  3. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. bowl — to roll
  3. sharp — with an edge
  4. sharp — clever
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. race — a contest
  7. bowl — a dish
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. cold — an illness
  10. cold — not warm
  11. ground — a position
  12. kick — with a leg
  13. ground — the earth
  14. degree — temperature
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. kick — in football
  18. ground — crushed
  19. degree — from a university
  20. race — the arms race
  21. spring — of water
  22. race — humankind
  23. spring — a coil
  24. degree — an amount

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