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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 116 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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468
Word bank
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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. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. The light ________________ burned out.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. I've got to change the light ________________.
  21. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. tear — from crying
  3. tear — to rip
  4. bulb — for light
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — to cut
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. tear — from crying
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. squash — the sport
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. perch — the fish
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. snap — to click
  17. degree — from a university
  18. degree — temperature
  19. clip — a video
  20. bulb — for light
  21. bulb — of a plant
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. squash — to crush
  24. straw — dry grass

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