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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. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  11. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. degree — temperature
  7. clip — for paper
  8. cold — an illness
  9. capital — money
  10. lean — to bend
  11. arm — a part of something
  12. cap — of ice
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. clip — a video
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. dip — to sink
  18. clip — to cut
  19. lean — thin
  20. capital — a city
  21. cap — a hat
  22. degree — an amount
  23. degree — from a university
  24. cap — a lid

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