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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: stem · last · kid · rash · arm · wind · cold · degree

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. My father caught me by the ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  19. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. rash — hasty
  3. degree — an amount
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. last — to go on
  6. rash — a series
  7. cold — not warm
  8. last — final
  9. kid — to tease
  10. arm — a part of something
  11. kid — child
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. wind — moving air
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. degree — from a university
  18. stem — to come from
  19. rash — on the skin
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. degree — temperature
  24. last — finally

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