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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: kid · clip · degree · coach · kick · arm · cold · pound

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. My father caught me by the ________________.
  24. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. degree — an amount
  5. kick — in football
  6. degree — from a university
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. clip — a video
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. clip — for paper
  14. cold — an illness
  15. kid — to tease
  16. pound — for dogs
  17. kid — child
  18. degree — temperature
  19. clip — to cut
  20. pound — a weight
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. pound — to hit hard

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