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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: degree · key · stick · clip · cold · pound · coach · lean

  1. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  10. Have you met the new head ________________?
  11. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  14. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  18. This piece is in a major ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. clip — a video
  3. clip — for paper
  4. clip — to cut
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. cold — not warm
  7. pound — a weight
  8. cold — an illness
  9. pound — to hit hard
  10. coach — a trainer
  11. lean — to rest against
  12. degree — an amount
  13. stick — a piece of wood
  14. key — the most important part
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. lean — to bend
  17. key — for a lock
  18. key — in music
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. stick — a piece of wood
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. lean — thin
  23. degree — temperature
  24. degree — from a university

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