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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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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: wind · degree · cold · wound · band · leaves · cap · chair

  1. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  6. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cap — of ice
  4. cold — not warm
  5. leaves — of a tree
  6. wound — an injury
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. band — a ring
  9. cap — a lid
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. leaves — lets stay
  12. chair — a leader
  13. leaves — to go away
  14. degree — an amount
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. chair — to sit on
  17. degree — from a university
  18. band — a music group
  19. wind — moving air
  20. degree — temperature
  21. wound — an injury
  22. cold — an illness
  23. wind — moving air
  24. chair — a professorship

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