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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. David sat on the ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. clip — a video
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. clip — for paper
  5. mine — for digging
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. wind — moving air
  8. swing — in golf
  9. swing — to play on
  10. wind — moving air
  11. clip — to cut
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. swing — music
  14. saw — the tool
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. court — of law
  17. court — of a king
  18. degree — from a university
  19. kick — in football
  20. court — for sport
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. saw — the tool
  24. degree — temperature

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