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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 · last · field · rest · net · clip · pound · land

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. last — to go on
  3. degree — from a university
  4. rest — what's left
  5. last — final
  6. pound — to hit hard
  7. degree — an amount
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. land — a country
  10. rest — what's left
  11. pound — a weight
  12. rest — a break
  13. clip — to cut
  14. land — ground
  15. clip — a video
  16. net — in sport
  17. net — for catching
  18. field — a subject
  19. last — finally
  20. clip — for paper
  21. degree — temperature
  22. field — farmland
  23. land — to come down
  24. net — after costs

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