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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. The ________________ went through the wall.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. clip — to cut
  3. kid — to tease
  4. wound — an injury
  5. bank — for money
  6. degree — temperature
  7. net — after costs
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. degree — an amount
  11. clip — a video
  12. net — in sport
  13. row — to paddle
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. net — for catching
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. degree — from a university
  18. wound — an injury
  19. row — a line
  20. bank — for money
  21. kid — child
  22. bank — of a river
  23. clip — for paper
  24. nail — on a finger

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