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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 116 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: degree · rest · press · court · kid · clip

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  5. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  6. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The ball is in your ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. press — to push
  3. court — of a king
  4. rest — what's left
  5. press — a publisher
  6. rest — what's left
  7. kid — child
  8. clip — for paper
  9. press — newspapers
  10. degree — from a university
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. degree — an amount
  13. court — of law
  14. clip — to cut
  15. degree — temperature
  16. clip — a video
  17. court — for sport
  18. kid — to tease

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