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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 124 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. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  8. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  9. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  10. Did you ________________ the button?
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  22. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  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. bass — the instrument
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. bass — the fish
  5. clip — for paper
  6. rash — a series
  7. bank — for money
  8. sharp — with an edge
  9. bank — for money
  10. press — to push
  11. sharp — clever
  12. bass — low music
  13. rash — hasty
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. mine — for digging
  16. degree — from a university
  17. clip — to cut
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. press — newspapers
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. bank — of a river
  22. press — a publisher
  23. clip — a video
  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