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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: clip · last · cell · patient · degree · bear · cold · leaves

  1. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  7. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  8. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  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. bear — to put up with
  2. degree — temperature
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. bear — the animal
  5. cold — an illness
  6. patient — a sick person
  7. leaves — lets stay
  8. patient — a sick person
  9. cell — a phone
  10. clip — a video
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. degree — from a university
  14. bear — the animal
  15. last — final
  16. leaves — to go away
  17. clip — for paper
  18. degree — an amount
  19. leaves — of a tree
  20. clip — to cut
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. last — to go on
  23. cell — in biology
  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