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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: bound · cell · spring · capital · degree · press · vault · cold

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  13. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  16. That was ________________ to happen.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. spring — the season
  3. degree — from a university
  4. press — a publisher
  5. press — to push
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. cell — in biology
  9. cold — an illness
  10. bound — obliged
  11. degree — temperature
  12. vault — a safe
  13. bound — tied together
  14. capital — a city
  15. press — newspapers
  16. bound — certain
  17. spring — a coil
  18. vault — in gymnastics
  19. spring — of water
  20. degree — an amount
  21. capital — money
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. cell — a phone
  24. vault — an arched ceiling

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