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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: safe · court · rush · saw · degree · chest · clip · land

  1. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  5. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. She's very handy with a ________________.
  22. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. clip — to cut
  3. land — to come down
  4. safe — out of danger
  5. rush — to hurry
  6. chest — a box
  7. chest — of your body
  8. court — of law
  9. land — ground
  10. safe — a strongbox
  11. chest — of your body
  12. clip — a video
  13. clip — for paper
  14. degree — temperature
  15. degree — from a university
  16. saw — past of 'see'
  17. land — a country
  18. court — for sport
  19. degree — an amount
  20. court — of a king
  21. saw — the tool
  22. safe — out of danger
  23. saw — the tool
  24. rush — a thrill

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