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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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  8. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  18. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  19. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Can you turn the ________________ on?

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. degree — an amount
  4. clip — for paper
  5. shower — to wash
  6. kid — to tease
  7. drill — the tool
  8. toast — a drink to someone
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. drill — a practice
  12. degree — from a university
  13. degree — temperature
  14. drill — army training
  15. perch — the fish
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. toast — bread
  19. toast — the most admired
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. shower — rain
  22. clip — to cut
  23. clip — a video
  24. fan — to cool the air

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