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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: mine · temple · clip · degree · cell · land · stick · swing

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. When was this ________________ built?
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. temple — side of the head
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. swing — to play on
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. swing — music
  7. land — a country
  8. land — ground
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. clip — to cut
  12. stick — a piece of wood
  13. swing — in golf
  14. cell — in biology
  15. land — to come down
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. temple — a place of worship
  19. mine — for digging
  20. clip — for paper
  21. degree — temperature
  22. clip — a video
  23. degree — an amount
  24. cell — a phone

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