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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: degree · scale · foot · kid · clip · chest · perch · plane

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. The ________________ took off on time.
  19. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. chest — of your body
  3. kid — to tease
  4. scale — size or range
  5. chest — of your body
  6. clip — a video
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. degree — from a university
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. degree — an amount
  11. chest — a box
  12. plane — a tool
  13. perch — the fish
  14. foot — a measure
  15. clip — for paper
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. plane — an aircraft
  19. foot — the bottom
  20. scale — in music
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. clip — to cut
  23. foot — part of the body
  24. degree — temperature

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