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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. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. This piece is in a major ________________.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. clip — for paper
  4. content — happy
  5. clip — to cut
  6. clip — a video
  7. degree — temperature
  8. key — for a lock
  9. spring — a coil
  10. spring — the season
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. degree — from a university
  13. key — in music
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. perch — the fish
  16. content — the amount
  17. wake — a trail
  18. key — the most important part
  19. degree — an amount
  20. sharp — clever
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. spring — of water
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. wake — to stop sleeping

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