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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. I've got to change the light ________________.
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. dip — to sink
  3. chip — to eat
  4. chip — for betting
  5. bulb — for light
  6. chip — in a computer
  7. cold — an illness
  8. degree — an amount
  9. bulb — of a plant
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. bulb — for light
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. perch — the fish
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. clip — for paper
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. degree — from a university
  19. wake — a trail
  20. degree — temperature
  21. clip — to cut
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. clip — a video
  24. dip — to dunk

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