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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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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. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. Have you found your soul ________________?
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. You don't need to ________________ round.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  21. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. shower — rain
  3. cold — not warm
  4. rule — to rule out
  5. shower — to wash
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. mate — a partner
  8. clip — for paper
  9. degree — from a university
  10. pop — to visit
  11. mate — a friend
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. clip — a video
  14. clip — to cut
  15. pop — soda
  16. rule — a law
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. stem — to come from
  19. degree — temperature
  20. mate — to breed
  21. rule — government
  22. pop — music
  23. cold — an illness
  24. cold — the Cold War

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