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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  7. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. It's one o'clock ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. degree — temperature
  3. kid — child
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. cell — in biology
  6. dip — a sauce
  7. dip — to dunk
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. trunk — of a tree
  10. sharp — clever
  11. sharp — exactly
  12. clip — to cut
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. kid — to tease
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. cell — a phone
  18. clip — a video
  19. dip — to sink
  20. degree — from a university
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. clip — for paper
  24. degree — an amount

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