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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 120 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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  7. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  8. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  9. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  12. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. clip — to cut
  3. staff — employees
  4. content — happy
  5. clip — a video
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. wake — before a funeral
  8. staff — employees
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. degree — from a university
  11. patient — calm and waiting
  12. racket — a loud noise
  13. degree — an amount
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. degree — temperature
  16. wake — a trail
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. staff — a stick
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. band — a music group
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. content — the amount
  24. band — a ring

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