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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. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. You don't need to ________________ round.
  21. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. pop — soda
  4. pound — for dogs
  5. clip — a video
  6. march — music
  7. clip — for paper
  8. dip — to dunk
  9. dip — to sink
  10. degree — an amount
  11. hand — in cards
  12. degree — temperature
  13. ruler — for measuring
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. march — the month
  16. march — the month
  17. ruler — a monarch
  18. hand — help
  19. clip — to cut
  20. pop — to visit
  21. dip — a sauce
  22. pop — music
  23. pound — a weight
  24. ruler — for measuring

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