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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. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  19. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. firm — decided
  2. press — to push
  3. net — in sport
  4. net — for catching
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. net — after costs
  7. degree — from a university
  8. clip — a video
  9. firm — steady
  10. clip — for paper
  11. press — a publisher
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. clip — to cut
  14. press — newspapers
  15. kid — child
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. shower — rain
  18. patient — calm and waiting
  19. firm — a company
  20. shower — to wash
  21. degree — temperature
  22. kid — to tease
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. degree — an amount

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