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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 116 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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. degree — from a university
  3. race — the arms race
  4. prune — to trim
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. degree — an amount
  7. kick — with a leg
  8. mine — for digging
  9. race — a contest
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. clip — a video
  12. shower — rain
  13. shower — to wash
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. cell — in biology
  17. kick — in football
  18. degree — temperature
  19. clip — to cut
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. race — humankind
  22. prune — to trim
  23. cell — a phone
  24. mine — belonging to me

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