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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: wind · cap · cold · stem · fall · degree

  1. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  17. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. degree — from a university
  6. fall — the season
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. cap — a lid
  9. degree — an amount
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. wind — moving air
  13. fall — to drop
  14. fall — to drop
  15. degree — temperature
  16. cap — of ice
  17. stem — to come from
  18. wind — moving air

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