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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. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. My mare is ________________ in color.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — in biology
  2. degree — an amount
  3. clip — a video
  4. bay — a horse colour
  5. row — a line
  6. land — to come down
  7. degree — from a university
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. clip — to cut
  10. tear — to rip
  11. row — to paddle
  12. swing — music
  13. land — ground
  14. swing — in golf
  15. bay — a part of the sea
  16. cell — a phone
  17. land — a country
  18. bay — to keep at bay
  19. swing — to play on
  20. degree — temperature
  21. tear — from crying
  22. clip — for paper
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. tear — from crying

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