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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 hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  24. We have nothing to ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. court — of law
  3. court — of a king
  4. clip — to cut
  5. hide — animal skin
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. clip — for paper
  8. cap — of ice
  9. cap — a hat
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. court — for sport
  12. content — happy
  13. spring — a coil
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. degree — temperature
  17. content — the amount
  18. degree — from a university
  19. clip — a video
  20. cap — a lid
  21. spring — the season
  22. degree — an amount
  23. hide — to keep secret
  24. hide — to keep secret

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