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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: court · safe · cold · clip · degree · mark · squash · row

  1. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  2. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  8. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  11. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  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. mark — to pay attention
  2. safe — a strongbox
  3. clip — for paper
  4. row — to paddle
  5. court — of a king
  6. row — a line
  7. safe — out of danger
  8. safe — out of danger
  9. squash — to crush
  10. mark — a trace
  11. squash — the sport
  12. cold — not warm
  13. clip — a video
  14. court — of law
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. degree — from a university
  17. degree — temperature
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. mark — a grade
  20. cold — an illness
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. court — for sport
  23. degree — an amount
  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