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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. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  2. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  5. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  6. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. The tickets are free of ________________.
  14. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  15. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  16. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. David sat on the ________________.
  22. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. track — to keep track
  2. charge — electricity
  3. clip — to cut
  4. plane — in geometry
  5. track — a song
  6. plane — a tool
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. cold — an illness
  10. degree — an amount
  11. clip — a video
  12. track — a path
  13. charge — a price
  14. charge — in control
  15. swing — music
  16. swing — in golf
  17. degree — temperature
  18. drill — a practice
  19. degree — from a university
  20. clip — for paper
  21. swing — to play on
  22. drill — the tool
  23. drill — army training
  24. cold — not warm

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