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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: fan · degree · firm · cold · clip · wind · bark · mouse

  1. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  2. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  3. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  4. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  23. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. mouse — for a computer
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. firm — steady
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. clip — to cut
  6. firm — a company
  7. wind — moving air
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. clip — a video
  10. cold — an illness
  11. clip — for paper
  12. mouse — the animal
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cold — not warm
  16. wind — to turn a key
  17. wind — moving air
  18. degree — from a university
  19. degree — an amount
  20. bark — to shout
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. firm — decided
  23. mouse — the animal
  24. degree — temperature

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