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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: chest · clip · degree · calf · cell · ball · kid · key

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  13. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. This piece is in a major ________________.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. degree — from a university
  3. ball — a great time
  4. clip — for paper
  5. key — the most important part
  6. kid — to tease
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. cell — in biology
  10. calf — of the leg
  11. chest — a box
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. key — for a lock
  14. degree — temperature
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. kid — child
  17. cell — a phone
  18. calf — a young animal
  19. clip — to cut
  20. degree — an amount
  21. chest — of your body
  22. clip — a video
  23. key — in music
  24. ball — a dance

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