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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 · prune · chest · nail · degree · kick · press · temple

  1. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  9. Did you ________________ the button?
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  17. The ________________ went through the wall.
  18. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  19. When was this ________________ built?
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. press — a publisher
  5. degree — from a university
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — a box
  8. press — newspapers
  9. press — to push
  10. chest — of your body
  11. prune — to trim
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. degree — an amount
  14. degree — temperature
  15. prune — to trim
  16. nail — on a finger
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. temple — side of the head
  19. temple — a place of worship
  20. clip — a video
  21. clip — for paper
  22. kick — in football
  23. clip — to cut
  24. prune — the fruit

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