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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. I'll be taking the ________________.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. degree — an amount
  3. band — a music group
  4. row — a line
  5. degree — temperature
  6. chair — a leader
  7. clip — a video
  8. row — to paddle
  9. chair — a professorship
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. clip — for paper
  13. tube — a container
  14. clip — to cut
  15. tube — the underground
  16. band — a ring
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. chair — to sit on

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