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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: rash · nail · row · prune · degree · chip · game · clip

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. The ________________ went through the wall.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. clip — for paper
  3. clip — to cut
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. row — a line
  6. clip — a video
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. chip — in a computer
  9. row — to paddle
  10. prune — to trim
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. rash — hasty
  14. game — a match
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. prune — to trim
  17. chip — to eat
  18. degree — temperature
  19. chip — for betting
  20. game — wild animals
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. degree — an amount
  24. rash — a series

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