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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 124 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 didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  11. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  12. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. The ________________ took off on time.
  19. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. track — to keep track
  3. degree — temperature
  4. clip — to cut
  5. wake — before a funeral
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. club — for golf
  9. clip — a video
  10. bore — to tire
  11. plane — a tool
  12. bore — gave birth
  13. clip — for paper
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. degree — an amount
  16. bore — to drill
  17. cold — not warm
  18. plane — an aircraft
  19. club — a group
  20. track — a path
  21. track — a song
  22. club — for dancing
  23. wake — a trail
  24. degree — from a university

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