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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: cold · wind · scale · arm · land · trunk · degree · cell

  1. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. My father caught me by the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — a part of something
  2. degree — an amount
  3. scale — size or range
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. cold — an illness
  6. degree — temperature
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. scale — for weighing
  10. cell — a phone
  11. degree — from a university
  12. land — ground
  13. land — a country
  14. wind — moving air
  15. scale — in music
  16. arm — part of the body
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — not warm
  20. cell — in biology
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. land — to come down
  23. wind — moving air
  24. arm — part of the 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