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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  11. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  20. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. snap — to click
  3. degree — an amount
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. patient — calm and waiting
  6. clip — a video
  7. degree — from a university
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. kid — to tease
  10. present — a gift
  11. present — the time now
  12. clip — for paper
  13. cold — not warm
  14. degree — temperature
  15. clip — to cut
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. present — there
  20. rush — hurry
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. cold — an illness
  23. kid — child
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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