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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: game · file · degree · cold · capital · stem · wind · rush

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. cold — an illness
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. degree — an amount
  6. file — a line of people
  7. degree — from a university
  8. stem — to come from
  9. wind — moving air
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. game — a match
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. file — a tool
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. degree — temperature
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. capital — a city
  18. cold — not warm
  19. rush — hurry
  20. wind — moving air
  21. file — a document
  22. capital — money
  23. game — wild animals
  24. rush — a thrill

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