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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: clip · field · degree · bat · scale · club · board · cold

  1. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  10. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a flat piece
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. degree — an amount
  4. bat — the animal
  5. cold — not warm
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. cold — an illness
  8. clip — for paper
  9. board — a committee
  10. scale — for weighing
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. club — for golf
  13. scale — in music
  14. club — a group
  15. field — for sport
  16. board — to get on
  17. clip — to cut
  18. field — farmland
  19. degree — from a university
  20. scale — size or range
  21. field — a subject
  22. clip — a video
  23. club — for dancing
  24. degree — temperature

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