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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 · rest · press · court · kid · clip · game · prune

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Did you ________________ the button?
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  13. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. press — a publisher
  3. court — of a king
  4. game — a match
  5. kid — child
  6. court — of law
  7. press — to push
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. degree — from a university
  10. court — for sport
  11. game — wild animals
  12. press — newspapers
  13. rest — what's left
  14. clip — for paper
  15. kid — to tease
  16. degree — an amount
  17. clip — to cut
  18. degree — temperature
  19. prune — to trim
  20. prune — to trim
  21. rest — what's left
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. clip — a video

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