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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 124 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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  9. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  10. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  14. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  15. David sat on the ________________.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. My father caught me by the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. content — happy
  3. degree — from a university
  4. arm — a part of something
  5. snap — to click
  6. chip — for betting
  7. clip — for paper
  8. stick — to attach or keep to
  9. content — the amount
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. clip — a video
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. chip — to eat
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. swing — to play on
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. clip — to cut
  19. swing — music
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. degree — temperature
  22. swing — in golf
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. arm — part of the body

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