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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  13. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  14. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  20. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. calf — a young animal
  4. clip — for paper
  5. club — for dancing
  6. degree — from a university
  7. hide — animal skin
  8. capital — a city
  9. spell — a short time
  10. clip — a video
  11. spell — magic
  12. calf — of the leg
  13. calf — a young animal
  14. bass — the instrument
  15. degree — temperature
  16. clip — to cut
  17. club — for golf
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. bass — the fish
  20. hide — to keep secret
  21. capital — money
  22. bass — low music
  23. spell — letters
  24. club — a group

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