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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. I assure you, everything's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. cell — a phone
  3. snap — to click
  4. fine — high quality
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. degree — from a university
  7. fine — a penalty
  8. tear — from crying
  9. tear — from crying
  10. clip — for paper
  11. clip — to cut
  12. degree — temperature
  13. degree — an amount
  14. tear — to rip
  15. cell — in biology
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. clip — a video
  18. fine — all right

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