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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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468
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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. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  12. My mare is ________________ in color.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  17. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  18. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — in football
  2. degree — an amount
  3. pit — in a race
  4. cold — an illness
  5. tear — to rip
  6. kick — a thrill
  7. pit — a hole
  8. clip — to cut
  9. degree — temperature
  10. clip — a video
  11. rush — to hurry
  12. bay — a horse colour
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. tear — from crying
  15. clip — for paper
  16. bay — to keep at bay
  17. kick — with a leg
  18. bay — a part of the sea
  19. tear — from crying
  20. cold — not warm
  21. rush — hurry
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. degree — from a university
  24. rush — a thrill

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