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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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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 · mate · row · race · drill · clip

  1. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — a practice
  2. mate — a partner
  3. degree — an amount
  4. degree — temperature
  5. race — a contest
  6. race — humankind
  7. clip — a video
  8. clip — to cut
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. mate — a friend
  11. degree — from a university
  12. clip — for paper
  13. race — the arms race
  14. drill — army training
  15. mate — to breed
  16. row — a line
  17. drill — the tool
  18. row — to paddle

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