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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. David sat on the ________________.
  6. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. spring — a coil
  3. mark — a trace
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. swing — to play on
  6. mark — to pay attention
  7. row — to paddle
  8. field — for sport
  9. object — a thing
  10. field — a subject
  11. spring — the season
  12. swing — in golf
  13. row — a line
  14. object — to protest
  15. clip — a video
  16. clip — to cut
  17. degree — temperature
  18. field — farmland
  19. mark — a grade
  20. degree — from a university
  21. object — an aim
  22. spring — of water
  23. swing — music
  24. degree — an amount

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