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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: patient · club · degree · cell · bulb · cold

  1. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. I've got to change the light ________________.
  9. The light ________________ burned out.
  10. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  11. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  12. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  13. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  14. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. club — for golf
  4. degree — temperature
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. bulb — for light
  9. bulb — for light
  10. club — for dancing
  11. patient — calm and waiting
  12. club — a group
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. bulb — of a plant
  15. degree — an amount
  16. cell — in biology
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. degree — from a university

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