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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 · chest · roll · land · pitch · degree · march · mug

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. We're on a ________________ here.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. Where did you ________________ them?
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  19. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. roll — on a roll
  3. clip — for paper
  4. roll — a cake
  5. clip — to cut
  6. degree — temperature
  7. chest — a box
  8. pitch — a sports field
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. chest — of your body
  11. pitch — completely
  12. land — a country
  13. mug — to rob
  14. land — to come down
  15. chest — of your body
  16. clip — a video
  17. mug — a cup
  18. march — music
  19. mug — a face
  20. land — ground
  21. roll — a list
  22. march — the month
  23. degree — from a university
  24. degree — an amount

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