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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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468
Word bank
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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. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  10. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  11. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  22. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. craft — boats
  3. clip — for paper
  4. content — happy
  5. craft — a handicraft
  6. degree — an amount
  7. rule — government
  8. content — the amount
  9. rule — to rule out
  10. lean — thin
  11. lean — to rest against
  12. cold — an illness
  13. kid — child
  14. kid — to tease
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. cold — not warm
  18. degree — from a university
  19. clip — to cut
  20. degree — temperature
  21. lean — to bend
  22. craft — a skill
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. rule — a law

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