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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  24. That was ________________ to happen.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. bowl — to roll
  3. kid — child
  4. ground — crushed
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. bowl — a football final
  7. degree — from a university
  8. kid — to tease
  9. degree — temperature
  10. prune — to trim
  11. spring — of water
  12. spring — the season
  13. ground — the earth
  14. clip — for paper
  15. bowl — a dish
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. ground — a position
  18. clip — to cut
  19. bound — tied together
  20. spring — a coil
  21. clip — a video
  22. prune — to trim
  23. bound — obliged
  24. bound — certain

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