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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: row · game · net · ruler · cold · degree · mate · land

  1. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. land — ground
  3. land — to come down
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. mate — to breed
  6. cold — not warm
  7. mate — a friend
  8. degree — temperature
  9. degree — an amount
  10. ruler — for measuring
  11. row — a line
  12. ruler — for measuring
  13. net — in sport
  14. ruler — a monarch
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. game — a match
  18. net — for catching
  19. degree — from a university
  20. cold — an illness
  21. row — to paddle
  22. net — after costs
  23. game — wild animals
  24. land — a country

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