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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: degree · present · straw · cold · cell · toast

  1. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  2. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  3. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. present — the time now
  2. present — there
  3. toast — the most admired
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. degree — an amount
  6. present — a gift
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. cold — not warm
  10. toast — a drink to someone
  11. cold — an illness
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. degree — temperature
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cell — a phone
  17. toast — bread
  18. cell — in biology

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