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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: kid · hand · press · kick · degree · current · chest · clip

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  3. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  4. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Did you ________________ the button?
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  15. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. kick — in football
  3. press — newspapers
  4. current — electric
  5. clip — for paper
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. kid — child
  8. kid — to tease
  9. current — happening now
  10. hand — in cards
  11. press — to push
  12. clip — to cut
  13. chest — of your body
  14. press — a publisher
  15. degree — an amount
  16. clip — a video
  17. current — of water
  18. degree — temperature
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. chest — a box
  22. chest — of your body
  23. hand — help
  24. kick — a thrill

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