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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: drill · land · present · clip · file · degree · current · bark

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  14. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  15. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. clip — a video
  3. file — a tool
  4. land — ground
  5. land — to come down
  6. present — a gift
  7. degree — from a university
  8. present — there
  9. drill — a practice
  10. bark — to shout
  11. clip — to cut
  12. drill — the tool
  13. current — of water
  14. current — happening now
  15. present — the time now
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. file — a line of people
  18. degree — temperature
  19. clip — for paper
  20. current — electric
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. file — a document
  23. drill — army training
  24. land — a country

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