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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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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: prune · root · band · race · field · degree · clip · pitch

  1. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  20. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  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. root — of a word
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. band — a ring
  4. field — a subject
  5. prune — to trim
  6. clip — to cut
  7. clip — for paper
  8. root — the cause
  9. race — humankind
  10. degree — an amount
  11. prune — to trim
  12. pitch — completely
  13. field — farmland
  14. degree — from a university
  15. prune — the fruit
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. clip — a video
  18. field — for sport
  19. pitch — a sports field
  20. root — of a plant
  21. degree — temperature
  22. race — the arms race
  23. race — a contest
  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