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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  4. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. He was locked up in a ________________.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. degree — an amount
  3. cell — in biology
  4. rule — a law
  5. cell — a phone
  6. tear — to rip
  7. wound — an injury
  8. degree — from a university
  9. tear — from crying
  10. degree — temperature
  11. stem — to come from
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. cell — in a prison
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. spring — the season
  16. cold — not warm
  17. spring — of water
  18. rule — government
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. tear — from crying
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. rule — to rule out
  23. cold — an illness
  24. wound — an injury

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