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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. degree — from a university
  3. pit — a hole
  4. last — final
  5. roll — a cake
  6. clip — for paper
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. foot — part of the body
  9. clip — to cut
  10. degree — temperature
  11. trunk — of a tree
  12. clip — a video
  13. tear — to rip
  14. foot — the bottom
  15. tear — from crying
  16. foot — a measure
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. roll — a list
  19. last — finally
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. last — to go on
  22. pit — in a race
  23. tear — from crying
  24. pit — a fruit stone

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