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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. fine — high quality
  4. ground — a position
  5. face — part of the head
  6. clip — to cut
  7. face — to point toward
  8. degree — from a university
  9. stem — to come from
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. degree — temperature
  12. wind — moving air
  13. band — a ring
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. fine — all right
  16. wind — moving air
  17. face — to confront
  18. clip — a video
  19. clip — for paper
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. ground — the earth
  22. ground — crushed
  23. fine — a penalty
  24. band — a music group

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