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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. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. She's very handy with a ________________.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — temperature
  2. snap — to click
  3. wound — an injury
  4. cell — a phone
  5. mark — a trace
  6. clip — a video
  7. degree — an amount
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. bat — the animal
  10. mark — to pay attention
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. mark — a grade
  13. cell — in biology
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. degree — from a university
  17. clip — for paper
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. saw — the tool
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. clip — to cut
  23. saw — the tool
  24. wound — an injury

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