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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 116 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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. degree — an amount
  3. cue — a signal
  4. clip — a video
  5. rule — a law
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. bat — the animal
  8. clip — for paper
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. cue — a hint
  12. wound — an injury
  13. rule — government
  14. wound — an injury
  15. fan — a supporter
  16. shower — to wash
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. degree — from a university
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. cue — for pool
  21. shower — rain
  22. rule — to rule out
  23. clip — to cut
  24. bat — for baseball

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