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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.

Make a worksheet

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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  11. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  12. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  13. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. wave — of the sea
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. degree — temperature
  6. clip — to cut
  7. degree — an amount
  8. spring — the season
  9. mine — for digging
  10. straw — a straw man
  11. row — to paddle
  12. wave — with your hand
  13. season — of the year
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. row — a line
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. spring — a coil
  18. wave — a sudden rise
  19. degree — from a university
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. clip — for paper
  22. spring — of water
  23. clip — a video
  24. season — in sport

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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