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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: court · straw · degree · shower · ball · game · clip · deal

  1. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. The King held a masked ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — a video
  2. degree — temperature
  3. degree — an amount
  4. court — for sport
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. clip — for paper
  9. court — of law
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. ball — a round shape
  12. court — of a king
  13. ball — a dance
  14. shower — rain
  15. ball — a great time
  16. deal — an agreement
  17. degree — from a university
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. game — wild animals
  20. shower — to wash
  21. clip — to cut
  22. deal — to handle
  23. game — a match
  24. straw — a straw man

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