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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: field · ball · degree · bat · patient · clip · band · plane

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. The ________________ took off on time.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. plane — an aircraft
  6. clip — to cut
  7. degree — temperature
  8. field — farmland
  9. ball — a dance
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. ball — a round shape
  12. band — a music group
  13. degree — an amount
  14. bat — the animal
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. clip — for paper
  17. field — a subject
  18. clip — a video
  19. band — a ring
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. field — for sport
  22. plane — a tool
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. ball — a great time

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