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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 120 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 ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. That must've been a ________________.
  4. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  13. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  17. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. court — of law
  2. degree — temperature
  3. rush — a thrill
  4. rush — to hurry
  5. tear — from crying
  6. foot — the bottom
  7. degree — from a university
  8. current — electric
  9. court — for sport
  10. degree — an amount
  11. tear — to rip
  12. foot — a measure
  13. rush — hurry
  14. clip — for paper
  15. clip — a video
  16. current — of water
  17. current — happening now
  18. tear — from crying
  19. field — farmland
  20. court — of a king
  21. field — a subject
  22. field — for sport
  23. foot — part of the body
  24. clip — to cut

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