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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  5. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  6. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. Where did you ________________ them?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — from a university
  3. cap — a hat
  4. cap — a lid
  5. cap — of ice
  6. mug — a face
  7. clip — a video
  8. degree — temperature
  9. net — in sport
  10. court — of a king
  11. court — for sport
  12. court — of law
  13. clip — to cut
  14. net — for catching
  15. clip — for paper
  16. mug — a cup
  17. net — after costs
  18. mug — to rob

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