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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 · lie · bark · cold · drill · clip · calf · court

  1. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  2. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  6. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  20. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. calf — of the leg
  2. drill — the tool
  3. clip — to cut
  4. court — for sport
  5. lie — an untruth
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. degree — from a university
  8. cold — an illness
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. degree — temperature
  11. degree — an amount
  12. court — of law
  13. clip — for paper
  14. drill — a practice
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. drill — army training
  17. lie — to recline
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. calf — a young animal
  20. bark — to shout
  21. clip — a video
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. court — of a king
  24. cold — not warm

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