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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  7. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  14. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  15. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  16. That must've been a ________________.
  17. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  18. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  19. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  20. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. clip — to cut
  3. degree — temperature
  4. can — to be able to
  5. cold — an illness
  6. staff — employees
  7. rush — to hurry
  8. degree — an amount
  9. clip — for paper
  10. rush — hurry
  11. swing — to play on
  12. cold — not warm
  13. object — an aim
  14. object — a thing
  15. can — a tin
  16. rush — a thrill
  17. can — a tin
  18. object — to protest
  19. staff — employees
  20. staff — a stick
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. swing — in golf
  23. clip — a video
  24. swing — music

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