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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: sharp · degree · cold · land · fine · hand · file · pit

  1. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  9. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. This knife is not ________________ enough.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — high quality
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. degree — from a university
  4. land — ground
  5. sharp — clever
  6. degree — an amount
  7. file — a tool
  8. pit — a fruit stone
  9. fine — a penalty
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. fine — all right
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — an illness
  15. land — to come down
  16. pit — a hole
  17. degree — temperature
  18. pit — in a race
  19. land — a country
  20. file — a line of people
  21. file — a document
  22. hand — help
  23. hand — in cards
  24. sharp — with an edge

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