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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: club · clip · rest · spring · degree · file · perch · tear

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  4. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. tear — from crying
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. rest — what's left
  5. perch — the fish
  6. tear — to rip
  7. file — a tool
  8. club — a group
  9. clip — a video
  10. file — a document
  11. tear — from crying
  12. rest — what's left
  13. clip — for paper
  14. club — for dancing
  15. spring — a coil
  16. degree — an amount
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. degree — temperature
  19. spring — the season
  20. rest — a break
  21. degree — from a university
  22. clip — to cut
  23. club — for golf
  24. file — a line of people

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