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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. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. sharp — clever
  3. deal — an agreement
  4. race — humankind
  5. deal — to handle
  6. spring — a coil
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. deal — a big deal
  9. race — a contest
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. degree — temperature
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. race — the arms race
  14. cell — in biology
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. spring — of water
  17. clip — for paper
  18. trunk — of a tree
  19. clip — a video
  20. degree — an amount
  21. spring — the season
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. clip — to cut
  24. degree — from a university

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