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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  15. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  16. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The ________________ took off on time.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. content — happy
  4. cold — not warm
  5. season — in sport
  6. degree — from a university
  7. clip — for paper
  8. clip — to cut
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. clip — a video
  11. spring — a coil
  12. content — the amount
  13. degree — temperature
  14. mark — a trace
  15. season — of the year
  16. mark — a grade
  17. degree — an amount
  18. plane — an aircraft
  19. spring — of water
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. plane — a tool
  23. spring — the season
  24. mark — to pay attention

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