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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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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: wind · squash · chest · mate · degree · clip

  1. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. clip — for paper
  3. wind — to turn a key
  4. mate — a friend
  5. squash — to crush
  6. chest — of your body
  7. mate — to breed
  8. squash — the sport
  9. mate — a partner
  10. clip — to cut
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. degree — from a university
  13. degree — an amount
  14. degree — temperature
  15. wind — moving air
  16. chest — of your body
  17. chest — a box
  18. clip — a video

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