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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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  12. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  19. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. mine — for digging
  3. clip — a video
  4. degree — from a university
  5. clip — to cut
  6. degree — temperature
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. object — a thing
  9. cold — an illness
  10. degree — an amount
  11. rock — to move gently
  12. object — to protest
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. object — an aim
  15. wind — moving air
  16. race — the arms race
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. rock — a stone
  19. rock — music
  20. race — humankind
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. cold — not warm
  23. clip — for paper
  24. race — a contest

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