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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: kid · degree · game · bear · cell · clip · saw · cold

  1. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. He works in a ________________ mill.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. She's very handy with a ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — the animal
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. saw — the tool
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cell — in biology
  6. game — wild animals
  7. clip — a video
  8. clip — for paper
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. game — a match
  11. clip — to cut
  12. saw — the tool
  13. cold — not warm
  14. kid — child
  15. degree — temperature
  16. cold — an illness
  17. degree — an amount
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. bear — to put up with
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. bear — the animal
  22. kid — to tease
  23. cell — a phone
  24. degree — from a university

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