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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 · cold · stick · shower · degree · coach

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  4. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. cold — not warm
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. shower — to wash
  6. cold — an illness
  7. degree — from a university
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. cell — in biology
  10. degree — temperature
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. cell — a phone
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. shower — rain
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. shower — a meteor shower

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