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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: scale · chest · cell · degree · clip · pound

  1. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  2. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — size or range
  2. scale — for weighing
  3. cell — a phone
  4. degree — an amount
  5. chest — a box
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. pound — to hit hard
  8. chest — of your body
  9. pound — a weight
  10. clip — for paper
  11. cell — in biology
  12. chest — of your body
  13. clip — to cut
  14. scale — in music
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. clip — a video
  17. degree — temperature
  18. degree — from a university

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