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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: chest · bay · degree · arm · band · content · clip · pop

  1. My mare is ________________ in color.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. My father caught me by the ________________.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  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. bay — a horse colour
  2. band — a music group
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. pop — soda
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — for paper
  7. clip — to cut
  8. band — a ring
  9. pop — to visit
  10. pop — music
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. bay — a part of the sea
  13. chest — a box
  14. chest — of your body
  15. content — the amount
  16. bay — to keep at bay
  17. degree — an amount
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. chest — of your body
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. content — happy
  22. degree — temperature
  23. degree — from a university
  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