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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: clip · deal · present · cold · band · degree

  1. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  2. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — to handle
  2. deal — an agreement
  3. band — a ring
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. degree — an amount
  7. cold — an illness
  8. degree — temperature
  9. clip — to cut
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. clip — a video
  12. present — a gift
  13. clip — for paper
  14. band — a music group
  15. cold — not warm
  16. present — there
  17. degree — from a university
  18. present — the time now

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