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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  2. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  4. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. How do you ________________ your surname?

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

Answer key

  1. branch — a division
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. track — a path
  4. track — a song
  5. degree — an amount
  6. shower — to wash
  7. game — wild animals
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. present — a gift
  10. degree — temperature
  11. degree — from a university
  12. game — a match
  13. track — to keep track
  14. present — there
  15. spell — magic
  16. mine — for digging
  17. shower — rain
  18. present — the time now
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. spell — a short time
  24. spell — letters

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