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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 · mug · bat · fan · staff · bass · degree · march

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  7. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  17. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Where did you ________________ them?
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. march — the month
  3. degree — an amount
  4. march — the month
  5. cold — not warm
  6. mug — a face
  7. staff — employees
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. bass — the fish
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. bat — the animal
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. staff — a stick
  17. mug — a cup
  18. march — music
  19. cold — an illness
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. mug — to rob
  22. degree — temperature
  23. staff — employees
  24. degree — from a university

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