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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: swing · shower · leaves · deal · cell · degree · cold · squash

  1. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  21. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  22. David sat on the ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. squash — the vegetable
  4. degree — temperature
  5. cell — a phone
  6. cold — an illness
  7. shower — to wash
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. cold — not warm
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. shower — rain
  12. deal — an agreement
  13. swing — in golf
  14. deal — to handle
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. squash — to crush
  18. swing — music
  19. cell — in biology
  20. leaves — to go away
  21. leaves — lets stay
  22. swing — to play on
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. degree — an amount

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