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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: nail · row · cell · cold · snap · bulb · pitch · degree

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. The light ________________ burned out.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I've got to change the light ________________.
  21. The ________________ went through the wall.
  22. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. snap — to click
  3. pitch — completely
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. row — to paddle
  6. cell — in biology
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. row — a line
  11. bulb — of a plant
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. cold — not warm
  14. degree — temperature
  15. cell — a phone
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. bulb — for light
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. bulb — for light
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. nail — on a finger
  23. degree — an amount
  24. degree — from a university

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