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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. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  16. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. clip — to cut
  3. pop — music
  4. file — a line of people
  5. bear — the animal
  6. land — ground
  7. bear — to put up with
  8. mine — for digging
  9. pop — soda
  10. degree — from a university
  11. clip — a video
  12. clip — for paper
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. date — the fruit
  17. degree — temperature
  18. degree — an amount
  19. bear — the animal
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. land — a country
  22. file — a tool
  23. file — a document
  24. land — to come down

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