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

Word bank: cell · degree · foot · stem · cold · bowl

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. stem — to come from
  3. foot — a measure
  4. degree — from a university
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. foot — part of the body
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. cold — an illness
  9. degree — temperature
  10. cell — a phone
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. cell — in biology
  13. foot — the bottom
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. bowl — a dish
  17. degree — an amount
  18. stem — of a plant

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