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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: mine · degree · cold · trunk · row · chest · lean · cell

  1. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. lean — to bend
  3. cell — a phone
  4. chest — of your body
  5. cold — not warm
  6. lean — thin
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. degree — an amount
  9. row — to paddle
  10. degree — temperature
  11. row — a line
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. mine — for digging
  16. degree — from a university
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. cell — in biology
  19. trunk — of a car
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. lean — to rest against
  22. chest — a box
  23. cold — an illness
  24. chest — of your body

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