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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: bay · land · court · clip · mate · degree · band · game

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. My mare is ________________ in color.
  4. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. The ball is in your ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. land — to come down
  3. bay — a horse colour
  4. mate — a friend
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. degree — an amount
  7. band — a music group
  8. land — a country
  9. mate — to breed
  10. mate — a partner
  11. degree — temperature
  12. land — ground
  13. bay — a part of the sea
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. clip — a video
  16. game — a match
  17. court — of law
  18. clip — for paper
  19. degree — from a university
  20. court — for sport
  21. court — of a king
  22. clip — to cut
  23. bay — to keep at bay
  24. game — wild animals

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