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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: fork · content · cue · season · row · land · cold · degree

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. cold — an illness
  3. content — happy
  4. degree — from a university
  5. cue — a hint
  6. degree — an amount
  7. cue — for pool
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. fork — in a road
  10. content — the amount
  11. land — ground
  12. land — to come down
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. row — a line
  15. degree — temperature
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. season — of the year
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cue — a signal
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. land — a country
  22. row — to paddle
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. season — in sport

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