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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: bore · degree · perch · clip · tear · mine · band · capital

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  12. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. band — a ring
  4. tear — to rip
  5. clip — to cut
  6. degree — an amount
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. capital — a city
  10. degree — temperature
  11. bore — to tire
  12. mine — for digging
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. bore — to drill
  15. clip — a video
  16. bore — gave birth
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. perch — the fish
  19. clip — for paper
  20. capital — money
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. tear — from crying
  23. band — a music group
  24. tear — from crying

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