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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 120 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: spring · lash · straw · cold · pound · degree · cell · last

  1. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  20. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  23. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. degree — from a university
  3. last — to go on
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. degree — an amount
  9. cold — an illness
  10. spring — the season
  11. cell — a phone
  12. pound — a weight
  13. cold — not warm
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. spring — of water
  17. degree — temperature
  18. cell — in biology
  19. lash — a whip stroke
  20. lash — an eyelash
  21. last — finally
  22. lash — to lash out
  23. last — final
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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