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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Where did you ________________ them?
  17. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. mug — a face
  3. squash — the sport
  4. clip — a video
  5. bank — for money
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. bank — of a river
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. squash — to crush
  12. degree — temperature
  13. degree — from a university
  14. degree — an amount
  15. cold — not warm
  16. mug — to rob
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. clip — to cut
  19. bank — for money
  20. field — a subject
  21. mug — a cup
  22. field — farmland
  23. squash — the vegetable
  24. field — for sport

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