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

  1. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  2. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — of ice
  2. lash — a whip stroke
  3. wound — an injury
  4. degree — temperature
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. lash — to lash out
  8. wound — an injury
  9. perch — the fish
  10. degree — from a university
  11. lash — an eyelash
  12. stem — to come from
  13. cap — a lid
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. degree — an amount
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. file — a document
  19. cold — an illness
  20. file — a tool
  21. cold — not warm
  22. cap — a hat
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. file — a line of people

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