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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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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  3. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  4. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  13. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  14. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  15. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  16. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Have you settled on a ________________?
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. mate — a friend
  3. degree — temperature
  4. craft — a handicraft
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — to cut
  7. date — on the calendar
  8. mate — a partner
  9. wound — an injury
  10. rest — a break
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. craft — a skill
  13. date — the fruit
  14. craft — boats
  15. rest — what's left
  16. rest — what's left
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. degree — from a university
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. clip — for paper
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. mate — to breed
  23. wound — an injury
  24. fork — in a road

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