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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: clip · calf · degree · cold · drill · vault · shower · file

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  6. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. drill — the tool
  3. calf — a young animal
  4. clip — to cut
  5. drill — a practice
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. file — a document
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. degree — from a university
  10. degree — temperature
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — an illness
  13. shower — rain
  14. vault — in gymnastics
  15. file — a line of people
  16. calf — of the leg
  17. degree — an amount
  18. shower — to wash
  19. clip — a video
  20. file — a tool
  21. cold — not warm
  22. vault — a safe
  23. drill — army training
  24. vault — an arched ceiling

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