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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. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  7. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  8. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. We're on a ________________ here.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  13. That was a fun ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  20. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  21. That was ________________ to happen.
  22. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. rest — a break
  3. degree — temperature
  4. clip — for paper
  5. cold — not warm
  6. stick — a piece of wood
  7. bound — tied together
  8. bound — obliged
  9. degree — an amount
  10. roll — on a roll
  11. clip — to cut
  12. roll — a list
  13. game — a match
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. cold — an illness
  16. roll — a cake
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. game — wild animals
  19. rest — what's left
  20. rest — what's left
  21. bound — certain
  22. stick — a piece of wood
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. clip — a video

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