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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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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: degree · pound · chair · tear · bound · cold · roll · trunk

  1. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. We're on a ________________ here.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. That was ________________ to happen.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  18. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. tear — from crying
  3. roll — on a roll
  4. degree — from a university
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. chair — a professorship
  7. tear — to rip
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. pound — a weight
  11. cold — not warm
  12. bound — certain
  13. tear — from crying
  14. degree — temperature
  15. bound — tied together
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bound — obliged
  18. chair — a leader
  19. cold — an illness
  20. roll — a list
  21. trunk — of an elephant
  22. degree — an amount
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. chair — to sit on

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