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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  4. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  15. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  16. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  20. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. wind — moving air
  3. ruler — for measuring
  4. cue — a hint
  5. clip — a video
  6. cold — an illness
  7. ruler — for measuring
  8. degree — an amount
  9. clip — to cut
  10. degree — from a university
  11. clip — for paper
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. band — a music group
  14. deal — to handle
  15. deal — a big deal
  16. deal — an agreement
  17. wind — moving air
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. ruler — a monarch
  20. cue — for pool
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. cold — not warm
  23. cue — a signal
  24. degree — temperature

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