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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 university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The ________________ took off on time.
  3. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  4. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  10. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  11. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  21. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  22. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. plane — an aircraft
  3. foot — the bottom
  4. plane — a tool
  5. clip — a video
  6. march — music
  7. spring — the season
  8. march — the month
  9. cue — a signal
  10. cue — a hint
  11. foot — part of the body
  12. file — a tool
  13. spring — of water
  14. march — the month
  15. spring — a coil
  16. degree — temperature
  17. clip — to cut
  18. clip — for paper
  19. degree — an amount
  20. foot — a measure
  21. cue — for pool
  22. plane — in geometry
  23. file — a document
  24. file — a line of people

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