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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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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: staff · degree · lean · pop · game · cold · hand · wind

  1. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. lean — thin
  3. wind — moving air
  4. hand — in cards
  5. pop — music
  6. degree — temperature
  7. game — a match
  8. cold — not warm
  9. pop — soda
  10. hand — help
  11. degree — from a university
  12. staff — employees
  13. pop — to visit
  14. staff — a stick
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. staff — employees
  18. game — wild animals
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. degree — an amount
  21. cold — an illness
  22. lean — to rest against
  23. wind — moving air
  24. lean — to bend

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