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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  3. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. She's very handy with a ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. He works in a ________________ mill.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. saw — past of 'see'
  3. dip — a sauce
  4. degree — an amount
  5. rest — what's left
  6. clip — to cut
  7. row — to paddle
  8. clip — for paper
  9. rest — what's left
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. game — a match
  12. saw — the tool
  13. game — wild animals
  14. saw — the tool
  15. cold — an illness
  16. degree — from a university
  17. rest — a break
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. degree — temperature
  20. clip — a video
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. cold — not warm
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. dip — to sink

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