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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 120 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: cold · prune · chest · clip · degree · bank · pound · dip

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  6. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. chest — of your body
  3. prune — to trim
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. bank — for money
  6. dip — to dunk
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. bank — of a river
  9. prune — to trim
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. chest — a box
  12. chest — of your body
  13. cold — not warm
  14. dip — a sauce
  15. degree — temperature
  16. clip — to cut
  17. cold — an illness
  18. dip — to sink
  19. degree — from a university
  20. pound — a weight
  21. degree — an amount
  22. clip — for paper
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. bank — for money

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