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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. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  7. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. lie — an untruth
  3. cold — not warm
  4. coach — a trainer
  5. kick — in football
  6. fine — high quality
  7. kick — with a leg
  8. clip — to cut
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. degree — temperature
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. lie — to recline
  13. clip — a video
  14. coach — pulled by horses
  15. sharp — clever
  16. fine — all right
  17. cold — an illness
  18. degree — an amount
  19. clip — for paper
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. fine — a penalty
  23. degree — from a university
  24. lie — an untruth

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