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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: cold · degree · stem · lean · wind · shower

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. wind — moving air
  3. lean — to bend
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. stem — of a plant
  6. wind — moving air
  7. shower — rain
  8. degree — from a university
  9. lean — thin
  10. stem — to come from
  11. shower — to wash
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — not warm
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. degree — temperature
  18. stem — a stem cell

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