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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 · ground · drill · degree · chest · stock · pass · clip

  1. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. There's no middle ________________.
  11. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  12. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  15. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. rash — hasty
  3. stock — shares
  4. clip — to cut
  5. chest — of your body
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. degree — an amount
  8. ground — crushed
  9. stock — goods
  10. ground — a position
  11. pass — to spend time
  12. pass — a permit
  13. degree — from a university
  14. drill — army training
  15. pass — to succeed
  16. drill — a practice
  17. ground — the earth
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. chest — of your body
  20. degree — temperature
  21. chest — a box
  22. clip — for paper
  23. rash — a series
  24. clip — a video

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