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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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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: rush · bat · degree · calf · deal · shower · clip · tube

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  16. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  19. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. That must've been a ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. clip — a video
  5. calf — of the leg
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. rush — hurry
  8. bat — the animal
  9. tube — the underground
  10. deal — an agreement
  11. degree — from a university
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. degree — temperature
  15. rush — to hurry
  16. tube — a container
  17. clip — for paper
  18. deal — to handle
  19. calf — a young animal
  20. shower — rain
  21. rush — a thrill
  22. clip — to cut
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. degree — an amount

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