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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: shower · clip · game · ground · march · degree · fork · mug

  1. Where did you ________________ them?
  2. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.

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

Answer key

  1. mug — to rob
  2. mug — a cup
  3. game — wild animals
  4. game — a match
  5. ground — crushed
  6. clip — to cut
  7. mug — a face
  8. shower — rain
  9. ground — the earth
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. march — the month
  12. degree — an amount
  13. fork — a garden tool
  14. clip — a video
  15. march — music
  16. fork — in a road
  17. march — the month
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. degree — temperature
  20. shower — to wash
  21. ground — a position
  22. clip — for paper
  23. degree — from a university
  24. fork — to eat with

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