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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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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. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  5. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  6. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — to lash out
  2. spring — the season
  3. clip — a video
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. hide — to keep secret
  6. lash — a whip stroke
  7. land — to come down
  8. lash — an eyelash
  9. clip — to cut
  10. bass — the fish
  11. clip — for paper
  12. degree — temperature
  13. cell — a phone
  14. hide — animal skin
  15. land — a country
  16. bass — low music
  17. spring — a coil
  18. cell — in a prison
  19. degree — from a university
  20. degree — an amount
  21. bass — the instrument
  22. spring — of water
  23. cell — in biology
  24. land — ground

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