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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.

Make a worksheet

Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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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: cabinet · cold · clip · drill · perch · season · mine · degree

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. What do you think of the new ________________?
  19. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. cold — not warm
  3. cabinet — ministers
  4. cold — an illness
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. clip — for paper
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. season — of the year
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. clip — to cut
  11. season — in sport
  12. degree — temperature
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. drill — the tool
  15. degree — from a university
  16. mine — for digging
  17. drill — army training
  18. cabinet — ministers
  19. cabinet — a cupboard
  20. perch — the fish
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. drill — a practice
  23. clip — a video
  24. mine — an explosive

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