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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  12. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  18. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. hand — help
  3. clip — to cut
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. clip — for paper
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. degree — an amount
  8. current — electric
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. tear — from crying
  11. calf — of the leg
  12. current — of water
  13. tear — from crying
  14. degree — from a university
  15. hand — in cards
  16. clip — a video
  17. calf — a young animal
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. tear — to rip
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. current — happening now
  23. degree — temperature
  24. date — the fruit

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