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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. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  4. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  7. We're almost out of ________________.
  8. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. Have you settled on a ________________?
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. degree — from a university
  3. pop — music
  4. toast — the most admired
  5. tear — from crying
  6. date — on the calendar
  7. pop — soda
  8. toast — a drink to someone
  9. degree — temperature
  10. scale — size or range
  11. clip — for paper
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. pop — to visit
  15. spring — of water
  16. spring — the season
  17. scale — in music
  18. tear — from crying
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — to cut
  21. degree — an amount
  22. date — the fruit
  23. spring — a coil
  24. tear — to rip

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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