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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: land · trunk · degree · court · fork · clip · pop · current

  1. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. We're almost out of ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. You don't need to ________________ round.

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

Answer key

  1. current — electric
  2. land — ground
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. current — of water
  5. clip — for paper
  6. pop — soda
  7. clip — to cut
  8. pop — music
  9. fork — in a road
  10. degree — from a university
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. current — happening now
  14. land — a country
  15. court — for sport
  16. clip — a video
  17. land — to come down
  18. court — of law
  19. degree — temperature
  20. court — of a king
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. degree — an amount
  24. pop — to visit

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