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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. spring — of water
  3. degree — an amount
  4. spell — letters
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. degree — temperature
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. cold — an illness
  9. spell — magic
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. rash — a series
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. degree — from a university
  14. clip — to cut
  15. rash — hasty
  16. clip — for paper
  17. spell — a short time
  18. present — the time now
  19. spring — a coil
  20. present — a gift
  21. cold — not warm
  22. straw — dry grass
  23. spring — the season
  24. present — there

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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