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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  3. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  13. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  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. spell — letters
  2. present — there
  3. present — the time now
  4. bound — certain
  5. present — a gift
  6. degree — temperature
  7. rest — a break
  8. spell — a short time
  9. spring — the season
  10. spell — magic
  11. degree — from a university
  12. bound — tied together
  13. rest — what's left
  14. rest — what's left
  15. degree — an amount
  16. spring — a coil
  17. clip — for paper
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — an illness
  20. bound — obliged
  21. spring — of water
  22. cold — not warm
  23. clip — to cut
  24. clip — a video

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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