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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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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. degree — from a university
  3. degree — an amount
  4. prune — to trim
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. march — the month
  7. clip — a video
  8. straw — to clutch at straws
  9. net — for catching
  10. degree — temperature
  11. march — music
  12. snap — to click
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. band — a ring
  15. prune — to trim
  16. clip — to cut
  17. net — after costs
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. march — the month
  20. band — a music group
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. net — in sport
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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