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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. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  6. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  9. Have you settled on a ________________?
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. wave — a sudden rise
  3. chest — of your body
  4. clip — a video
  5. wave — of the sea
  6. sharp — clever
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. wake — before a funeral
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. degree — an amount
  12. snap — to click
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. clip — for paper
  15. wake — to stop sleeping
  16. chest — of your body
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. degree — temperature
  19. clip — to cut
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. wake — a trail
  22. chest — a box
  23. degree — from a university
  24. date — on the calendar

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