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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. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  6. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  21. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. Let us try to swim against the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. current — electric
  3. degree — an amount
  4. spell — letters
  5. fan — to cool the air
  6. stem — to come from
  7. court — of law
  8. tear — to rip
  9. current — happening now
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. degree — temperature
  12. clip — a video
  13. tear — from crying
  14. court — of a king
  15. degree — from a university
  16. court — for sport
  17. clip — for paper
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. fan — a supporter
  21. spell — magic
  22. tear — from crying
  23. spell — a short time
  24. current — of water

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