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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: spell · deal · band · fork · mine · clip · scale · degree

  1. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  2. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — for weighing
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. mine — for digging
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. scale — in music
  7. clip — a video
  8. degree — temperature
  9. clip — for paper
  10. spell — letters
  11. degree — from a university
  12. degree — an amount
  13. spell — magic
  14. band — a ring
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. deal — to handle
  17. scale — size or range
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. clip — to cut
  20. fork — in a road
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. spell — a short time
  23. mine — belonging to me
  24. band — a music group

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