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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  18. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. What do you think of the new ________________?
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. clip — for paper
  3. land — to come down
  4. sharp — clever
  5. land — ground
  6. clip — a video
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. degree — temperature
  9. shower — to wash
  10. land — a country
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. clip — to cut
  13. cabinet — ministers
  14. degree — an amount
  15. degree — from a university
  16. shower — rain
  17. cabinet — a cupboard
  18. sharp — with an edge
  19. row — a line
  20. row — to paddle
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. cabinet — ministers
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. cold — an illness

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