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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 · calf · degree · cold · drill · vault

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  11. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  12. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. vault — a safe
  3. drill — army training
  4. cold — not warm
  5. degree — an amount
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. clip — for paper
  8. drill — a practice
  9. degree — temperature
  10. calf — a young animal
  11. calf — of the leg
  12. vault — an arched ceiling
  13. clip — a video
  14. vault — in gymnastics
  15. degree — from a university
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cold — an illness
  18. drill — the tool

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