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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  6. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. Where did you ________________ them?
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. spring — of water
  3. clip — for paper
  4. mine — for digging
  5. mug — a face
  6. pop — music
  7. spring — a coil
  8. clip — to cut
  9. mug — a cup
  10. wind — moving air
  11. spring — the season
  12. degree — temperature
  13. mug — to rob
  14. drill — the tool
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. clip — a video
  17. pop — to visit
  18. pop — soda
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. drill — a practice
  21. wind — moving air
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. drill — army training
  24. degree — an amount

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