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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 120 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: content · race · spring · degree · file · staff · clip · rush

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  6. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. rush — to hurry
  3. spring — of water
  4. spring — the season
  5. staff — employees
  6. rush — hurry
  7. content — happy
  8. content — the amount
  9. clip — to cut
  10. file — a line of people
  11. file — a tool
  12. race — the arms race
  13. degree — temperature
  14. file — a document
  15. race — humankind
  16. race — a contest
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. clip — for paper
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. staff — employees
  21. spring — a coil
  22. clip — a video
  23. staff — a stick
  24. degree — an amount

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