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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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468
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: cell · ball · wound · fan · hand · net · staff · degree

  1. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. wound — an injury
  3. net — for catching
  4. staff — employees
  5. cell — a phone
  6. wound — an injury
  7. fan — a supporter
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. staff — employees
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. staff — a stick
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. hand — in cards
  14. degree — temperature
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. degree — from a university
  19. ball — a dance
  20. net — in sport
  21. net — after costs
  22. hand — help
  23. degree — an amount
  24. cell — in biology

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