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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: shower · root · rest · fork · degree · clip · chip · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  3. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. root — of a word
  3. root — the cause
  4. shower — to wash
  5. chip — for betting
  6. rest — a break
  7. chip — in a computer
  8. chip — to eat
  9. shower — rain
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. clip — a video
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. clip — to cut
  14. rest — what's left
  15. degree — an amount
  16. degree — from a university
  17. clip — for paper
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. cold — not warm
  20. fork — in a road
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. rest — what's left
  23. degree — temperature
  24. root — of a plant

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