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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 120 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: stem · land · cue · capital · pound · file · degree · clip

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. file — a line of people
  3. land — a country
  4. capital — a city
  5. stem — to come from
  6. pound — a weight
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. cue — for pool
  9. clip — for paper
  10. cue — a hint
  11. capital — money
  12. cue — a signal
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. degree — temperature
  15. stem — of a plant
  16. degree — from a university
  17. degree — an amount
  18. land — ground
  19. pound — for dogs
  20. clip — to cut
  21. clip — a video
  22. file — a document
  23. file — a tool
  24. land — to come down

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