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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. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. cap — of ice
  2. stem — to come from
  3. rash — hasty
  4. cap — a hat
  5. bank — for money
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. degree — temperature
  8. march — the month
  9. march — music
  10. degree — from a university
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. bank — for money
  14. rash — a series
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cap — a lid
  18. cold — not warm
  19. march — the month
  20. bank — of a river
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. branch — a division
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. degree — an amount

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