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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. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  10. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Did you ________________ the meat?
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  18. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. file — a line of people
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. perch — the fish
  5. shower — rain
  6. season — of the year
  7. degree — temperature
  8. clip — for paper
  9. chair — to sit on
  10. season — in sport
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. shower — to wash
  13. root — of a word
  14. clip — a video
  15. season — to add flavour
  16. file — a document
  17. root — of a plant
  18. root — the cause
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. chair — a leader
  21. degree — an amount
  22. file — a tool
  23. degree — from a university
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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