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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: toast · wound · degree · clip · file · kick · pound · tear

  1. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  8. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  13. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  17. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — with a leg
  2. degree — an amount
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. tear — from crying
  5. toast — a drink to someone
  6. degree — temperature
  7. kick — in football
  8. kick — a thrill
  9. file — a line of people
  10. file — a document
  11. file — a tool
  12. toast — bread
  13. pound — for dogs
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. degree — from a university
  16. pound — a weight
  17. toast — the most admired
  18. wound — an injury
  19. clip — a video
  20. tear — from crying
  21. wound — an injury
  22. clip — for paper
  23. clip — to cut
  24. tear — to rip

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