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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: fall · content · net · stem · degree · pitch · plane · cold

  1. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  9. The ________________ took off on time.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. fall — to drop
  3. pitch — a sports field
  4. cold — an illness
  5. fall — the season
  6. net — after costs
  7. content — happy
  8. pitch — completely
  9. plane — an aircraft
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. cold — not warm
  12. plane — in geometry
  13. degree — an amount
  14. plane — a tool
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. degree — from a university
  17. content — the amount
  18. degree — temperature
  19. pitch — a sales talk
  20. net — for catching
  21. net — in sport
  22. stem — to come from
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. cold — the Cold War

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