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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. He was locked up in a ________________.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  8. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in a prison
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. net — after costs
  4. clip — to cut
  5. game — wild animals
  6. net — in sport
  7. mark — to pay attention
  8. mark — a trace
  9. game — a match
  10. shower — to wash
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. degree — an amount
  13. coach — pulled by horses
  14. net — for catching
  15. cell — a phone
  16. clip — for paper
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. clip — a video
  19. shower — rain
  20. degree — temperature
  21. mark — a grade
  22. degree — from a university
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. cell — in biology

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