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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 120 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 · club · degree · land · kick · tear · last · court

  1. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  24. False peace will not ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. land — to come down
  3. degree — an amount
  4. land — ground
  5. club — a group
  6. club — for dancing
  7. last — finally
  8. degree — from a university
  9. clip — a video
  10. clip — for paper
  11. club — for golf
  12. court — of law
  13. last — final
  14. kick — in football
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. court — for sport
  17. degree — temperature
  18. land — a country
  19. kick — with a leg
  20. clip — to cut
  21. tear — to rip
  22. court — of a king
  23. tear — from crying
  24. last — to go on

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