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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. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  2. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  19. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  20. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — for weighing
  2. vault — in gymnastics
  3. clip — for paper
  4. scale — in music
  5. lash — an eyelash
  6. cold — an illness
  7. clip — to cut
  8. cold — not warm
  9. mine — for digging
  10. degree — temperature
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. lash — to lash out
  14. clip — a video
  15. face — to point toward
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. face — part of the head
  18. lash — a whip stroke
  19. vault — a safe
  20. vault — an arched ceiling
  21. degree — from a university
  22. face — to confront
  23. degree — an amount
  24. scale — size or range

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