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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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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 · tear · race · wave · chest · clip · net · degree

  1. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. field — farmland
  3. clip — to cut
  4. tear — from crying
  5. field — for sport
  6. tear — from crying
  7. clip — for paper
  8. net — for catching
  9. net — after costs
  10. wave — a sudden rise
  11. degree — temperature
  12. degree — an amount
  13. wave — of the sea
  14. field — a subject
  15. chest — of your body
  16. chest — of your body
  17. clip — a video
  18. net — in sport
  19. wave — with your hand
  20. race — the arms race
  21. race — humankind
  22. degree — from a university
  23. race — a contest
  24. tear — to rip

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