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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. spring — the season
  4. tear — from crying
  5. board — a committee
  6. spell — a short time
  7. board — a flat piece
  8. clip — to cut
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. clip — a video
  11. board — to get on
  12. tear — to rip
  13. degree — from a university
  14. ground — the earth
  15. kick — in football
  16. spell — letters
  17. spring — of water
  18. spring — a coil
  19. spell — magic
  20. clip — for paper
  21. degree — temperature
  22. tear — from crying
  23. ground — a position
  24. ground — crushed

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