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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. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  11. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. land — a country
  3. degree — from a university
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. pop — soda
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. clip — for paper
  8. perch — for a bird
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. patient — calm and waiting
  11. racket — a loud noise
  12. perch — the fish
  13. pop — music
  14. cold — an illness
  15. clip — to cut
  16. clip — a video
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. cold — not warm
  19. pop — to visit
  20. land — to come down
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. degree — temperature
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. land — ground

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