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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. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. I assure you, everything's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — a penalty
  2. land — to come down
  3. snap — to click
  4. cell — a phone
  5. degree — temperature
  6. land — a country
  7. degree — an amount
  8. race — a contest
  9. degree — from a university
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. land — ground
  13. fine — high quality
  14. tear — to rip
  15. cell — in biology
  16. race — humankind
  17. tear — from crying
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. clip — for paper
  22. tear — from crying
  23. race — the arms race
  24. fine — all right

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