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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 116 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: kick · march · bat · bowl · degree · cold · stem · clip

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  11. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. march — the month
  3. clip — a video
  4. march — music
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. clip — for paper
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. bat — the animal
  10. kick — with a leg
  11. bowl — a dish
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. stem — to come from
  14. kick — in football
  15. degree — temperature
  16. degree — an amount
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — not warm
  20. march — the month
  21. degree — from a university
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. bowl — to roll
  24. clip — to cut

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