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

Word bank: degree · clip · pound · wind · lie · shower

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  12. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  16. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. 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. shower — to wash
  2. wind — to turn a key
  3. wind — moving air
  4. shower — a meteor shower
  5. degree — temperature
  6. shower — rain
  7. pound — a weight
  8. clip — to cut
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. degree — from a university
  11. pound — for dogs
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. wind — moving air
  14. clip — for paper
  15. lie — to recline
  16. pound — to hit hard
  17. clip — a video
  18. 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