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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: band · snap · coach · cold · ground · spell · pitch · degree

  1. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  16. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Have you met the new head ________________?
  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. spell — letters
  2. spell — magic
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. snap — to click
  5. pitch — completely
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. band — a music group
  11. band — a ring
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. degree — temperature
  14. degree — from a university
  15. ground — the earth
  16. ground — crushed
  17. cold — not warm
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. spell — a short time
  20. coach — a trainer
  21. ground — a position
  22. cold — an illness
  23. coach — a trainer
  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