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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Where did you ________________ them?
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. kick — with a leg
  3. degree — from a university
  4. clip — to cut
  5. bass — low music
  6. land — to come down
  7. land — ground
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. cell — a phone
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. mug — a cup
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. mug — to rob
  14. degree — an amount
  15. mug — a face
  16. clip — for paper
  17. mine — for digging
  18. bass — the instrument
  19. cell — in biology
  20. bass — the fish
  21. kick — in football
  22. degree — temperature
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. clip — a video

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