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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 · tear · shower · land · clip · sharp · ball · scale

  1. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — a country
  2. sharp — clever
  3. ball — a round shape
  4. tear — from crying
  5. ball — a great time
  6. clip — for paper
  7. degree — an amount
  8. degree — from a university
  9. ball — a dance
  10. tear — to rip
  11. clip — to cut
  12. shower — to wash
  13. clip — a video
  14. shower — a meteor shower
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. degree — temperature
  17. tear — from crying
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. scale — in music
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. land — to come down
  22. shower — rain
  23. land — ground
  24. scale — size or range

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