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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: leaves · court · kick · net · scale · bat · clip · degree

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. leaves — of a tree
  3. clip — for paper
  4. court — of a king
  5. degree — temperature
  6. scale — size or range
  7. degree — an amount
  8. net — for catching
  9. kick — a thrill
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. court — for sport
  13. leaves — lets stay
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. leaves — to go away
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. scale — in music
  18. kick — with a leg
  19. net — in sport
  20. degree — from a university
  21. net — after costs
  22. kick — in football
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. court — of law

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