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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: clip · hand · drill · ball · present · degree · club · wound

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  21. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  22. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. degree — from a university
  3. hand — in cards
  4. drill — the tool
  5. present — a gift
  6. drill — a practice
  7. ball — a great time
  8. degree — temperature
  9. present — there
  10. clip — a video
  11. wound — an injury
  12. club — for golf
  13. club — a group
  14. clip — to cut
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. hand — help
  17. degree — an amount
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. ball — a dance
  20. club — for dancing
  21. present — the time now
  22. drill — army training
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. clip — for paper

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