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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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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: degree · perch · toast · race · content · hand · clip · bass

  1. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. degree — from a university
  3. toast — a drink to someone
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. degree — an amount
  6. content — happy
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. toast — the most admired
  9. clip — to cut
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. race — a contest
  12. perch — the fish
  13. toast — bread
  14. clip — a video
  15. bass — the instrument
  16. clip — for paper
  17. hand — help
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. degree — temperature
  20. race — the arms race
  21. race — humankind
  22. hand — in cards
  23. bass — low music
  24. content — the 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