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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: bear · cold · sharp · fan · ground · march · degree · hide

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  6. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  9. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  18. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. bear — the animal
  3. ground — the earth
  4. sharp — clever
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. hide — animal skin
  9. bear — the animal
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. march — the month
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. march — the month
  14. bear — to put up with
  15. degree — an amount
  16. march — music
  17. ground — crushed
  18. fan — to cool the air
  19. ground — a position
  20. cold — not warm
  21. degree — temperature
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. degree — from a university
  24. fan — a supporter

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