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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  9. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  10. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. Where did you ________________ them?
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. face — part of the head
  3. clip — to cut
  4. shower — to wash
  5. degree — an amount
  6. face — to point toward
  7. file — a tool
  8. can — a tin
  9. can — to be able to
  10. fall — the season
  11. clip — for paper
  12. face — to confront
  13. mug — a face
  14. clip — a video
  15. file — a line of people
  16. mug — a cup
  17. degree — temperature
  18. can — a tin
  19. fall — to drop
  20. mug — to rob
  21. shower — rain
  22. fall — to drop
  23. file — a document
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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