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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 116 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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — from a university
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. game — a match
  5. wound — an injury
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. fork — in a road
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. prune — to trim
  12. clip — a video
  13. bark — to shout
  14. game — wild animals
  15. degree — temperature
  16. ground — a position
  17. clip — for paper
  18. prune — to trim
  19. wound — an injury
  20. fork — to eat with
  21. ground — crushed
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. clip — to cut
  24. ground — the earth

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