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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: bat · rush · shower · clip · straw · degree · pit · last

  1. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. That must've been a ________________.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — to cut
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. clip — for paper
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. shower — rain
  6. rush — a thrill
  7. degree — temperature
  8. shower — to wash
  9. bat — the animal
  10. pit — in a race
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. last — to go on
  16. degree — from a university
  17. last — final
  18. rush — to hurry
  19. rush — hurry
  20. clip — a video
  21. straw — to clutch at straws
  22. last — finally
  23. degree — an amount
  24. pit — a hole

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