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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 120 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. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Have you found your soul ________________?
  21. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. degree — from a university
  3. clip — a video
  4. mate — a friend
  5. game — wild animals
  6. ball — a great time
  7. fork — in a road
  8. rule — government
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. wound — an injury
  12. rule — a law
  13. clip — for paper
  14. degree — an amount
  15. game — a match
  16. wound — an injury
  17. clip — to cut
  18. ball — a round shape
  19. degree — temperature
  20. mate — a partner
  21. rule — to rule out
  22. ball — a dance
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. fork — a garden tool

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