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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. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  4. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Did you ________________ the button?
  19. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Where did you ________________ them?
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. degree — from a university
  3. press — a publisher
  4. mug — a cup
  5. tear — from crying
  6. cold — not warm
  7. file — a tool
  8. cold — an illness
  9. clip — for paper
  10. press — newspapers
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. clip — to cut
  14. clip — a video
  15. wind — moving air
  16. degree — temperature
  17. tear — to rip
  18. press — to push
  19. mug — a face
  20. file — a document
  21. file — a line of people
  22. degree — an amount
  23. mug — to rob
  24. wind — moving air

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