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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: arm · degree · lean · wind · clip · current · tear · wake

  1. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  5. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  11. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  17. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. My father caught me by the ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  23. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  24. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — to stop sleeping
  2. wind — moving air
  3. wind — moving air
  4. wake — a trail
  5. lean — thin
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. tear — from crying
  8. degree — from a university
  9. tear — to rip
  10. lean — to rest against
  11. current — happening now
  12. tear — from crying
  13. clip — a video
  14. lean — to bend
  15. clip — to cut
  16. current — electric
  17. wake — before a funeral
  18. degree — an amount
  19. arm — part of the body
  20. clip — for paper
  21. degree — temperature
  22. current — of water
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. arm — a part of something

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