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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 120 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: lie · cold · mate · ball · hand · clip · nail · degree

  1. Have you found your soul ________________?
  2. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  3. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  12. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. The ________________ went through the wall.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a partner
  2. lie — to recline
  3. lie — an untruth
  4. mate — a friend
  5. degree — from a university
  6. cold — an illness
  7. ball — a dance
  8. clip — for paper
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. clip — a video
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. cold — not warm
  16. hand — in cards
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. nail — on a finger
  19. mate — to breed
  20. ball — a great time
  21. clip — to cut
  22. degree — temperature
  23. hand — help
  24. degree — an amount

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