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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 124 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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The light ________________ burned out.
  19. Have you met the new head ________________?
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  23. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  24. I've got to change the light ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. cold — an illness
  3. clip — a video
  4. race — humankind
  5. field — for sport
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. race — a contest
  8. field — a subject
  9. field — farmland
  10. degree — from a university
  11. clip — for paper
  12. race — the arms race
  13. degree — an amount
  14. cold — not warm
  15. club — for dancing
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. bulb — for light
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. club — a group
  21. degree — temperature
  22. club — for golf
  23. bulb — of a plant
  24. bulb — for light

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