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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: clip · hand · ball · nail · degree · file · field · foot

  1. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  4. The King held a masked ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. The ________________ went through the wall.
  14. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  15. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  16. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  17. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. Do you need a ________________ with that?

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

Answer key

  1. hand — in cards
  2. clip — for paper
  3. nail — for a hammer
  4. ball — a dance
  5. clip — a video
  6. ball — a great time
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. field — a subject
  9. field — farmland
  10. field — for sport
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. degree — an amount
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. degree — from a university
  15. nail — on a finger
  16. foot — part of the body
  17. foot — the bottom
  18. degree — temperature
  19. file — a document
  20. file — a tool
  21. file — a line of people
  22. foot — a measure
  23. clip — to cut
  24. hand — help

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