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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. My father caught me by the ________________.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. arm — part of the body
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. clip — for paper
  5. land — a country
  6. degree — temperature
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. clip — a video
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. land — to come down
  11. arm — a part of something
  12. spring — the season
  13. spring — of water
  14. spring — a coil
  15. land — ground
  16. spell — magic
  17. game — wild animals
  18. lash — an eyelash
  19. game — a match
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. degree — from a university
  22. degree — an amount
  23. clip — to cut
  24. spell — a short time

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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