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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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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: cold · degree · tear · clip · calf · court

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. court — of a king
  4. clip — for paper
  5. degree — temperature
  6. cold — not warm
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. clip — a video
  9. degree — from a university
  10. tear — from crying
  11. clip — to cut
  12. tear — to rip
  13. degree — an amount
  14. tear — from crying
  15. court — for sport
  16. court — of law
  17. calf — of the leg
  18. cold — the Cold War

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