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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  16. That was ________________ to happen.
  17. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. chair — a leader
  3. march — the month
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. march — music
  6. bound — tied together
  7. land — ground
  8. land — a country
  9. bound — obliged
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. hand — in cards
  12. march — the month
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. clip — for paper
  15. fine — high quality
  16. bound — certain
  17. fine — a penalty
  18. degree — from a university
  19. fine — all right
  20. land — to come down
  21. degree — temperature
  22. clip — a video
  23. clip — to cut
  24. hand — help

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