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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  9. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  10. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. When will it ________________ you to start?
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. suit — in cards
  3. net — after costs
  4. prune — to trim
  5. season — in sport
  6. prune — to trim
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. rest — a break
  9. suit — clothes
  10. rest — what's left
  11. clip — for paper
  12. degree — from a university
  13. clip — to cut
  14. suit — to fit
  15. net — in sport
  16. bat — the animal
  17. rest — what's left
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. season — of the year
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. clip — a video
  22. net — for catching
  23. degree — temperature
  24. bat — for baseball

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