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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. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. He works in a ________________ mill.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  21. That was a fun ________________.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. clip — for paper
  3. game — wild animals
  4. degree — from a university
  5. clip — a video
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. degree — temperature
  9. saw — the tool
  10. bark — to shout
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. degree — an amount
  13. fork — in a road
  14. saw — the tool
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. tube — a container
  20. fork — to eat with
  21. game — a match
  22. tube — the underground
  23. clip — to cut
  24. patient — a sick person

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