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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. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. She's very handy with a ________________.
  21. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  2. bass — the fish
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. degree — an amount
  5. saw — past of 'see'
  6. wind — moving air
  7. bass — low music
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. wind — moving air
  10. hand — in cards
  11. kid — to tease
  12. hand — help
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. clip — to cut
  15. degree — temperature
  16. clip — for paper
  17. bark — to shout
  18. degree — from a university
  19. kid — child
  20. saw — the tool
  21. bass — the instrument
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. clip — a video
  24. saw — the tool

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