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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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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: scale · degree · lie · tear · cold · pound · snap · clip

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  5. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  12. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  16. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  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. cold — not warm
  2. clip — for paper
  3. tear — from crying
  4. lie — to recline
  5. tear — to rip
  6. degree — temperature
  7. scale — size or range
  8. clip — to cut
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. scale — in music
  12. pound — for dogs
  13. degree — an amount
  14. tear — from crying
  15. lie — an untruth
  16. lie — an untruth
  17. clip — a video
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. snap — to click
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. cold — an illness
  22. pound — a weight
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  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