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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. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. He works in a ________________ mill.
  8. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  9. She's very handy with a ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  12. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. fall — to drop
  3. degree — from a university
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. root — of a word
  6. fall — to drop
  7. saw — the tool
  8. root — of a plant
  9. saw — the tool
  10. clip — for paper
  11. root — the cause
  12. lean — thin
  13. bat — the animal
  14. lean — to bend
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. fall — the season
  17. court — of a king
  18. court — for sport
  19. degree — temperature
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. clip — a video
  23. clip — to cut
  24. court — of law

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