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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  4. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  19. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — wild animals
  2. clip — to cut
  3. scale — for weighing
  4. craft — a handicraft
  5. tear — from crying
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. tear — to rip
  8. scale — size or range
  9. game — a match
  10. tear — from crying
  11. drill — the tool
  12. craft — boats
  13. cold — an illness
  14. clip — for paper
  15. scale — in music
  16. drill — army training
  17. degree — from a university
  18. craft — a skill
  19. drill — a practice
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. degree — an amount
  22. degree — temperature
  23. clip — a video
  24. cold — not warm

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