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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: pound · mate · degree · perch · deal · last · clip · cold

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  5. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Have you found your soul ________________?
  23. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. perch — the fish
  3. pound — a weight
  4. deal — to handle
  5. deal — an agreement
  6. degree — an amount
  7. degree — from a university
  8. last — to go on
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. cold — an illness
  11. deal — a big deal
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. mate — to breed
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. clip — a video
  16. last — finally
  17. clip — to cut
  18. degree — temperature
  19. pound — for dogs
  20. mate — a friend
  21. cold — not warm
  22. mate — a partner
  23. perch — for a bird
  24. clip — for paper

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