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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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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. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  16. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  17. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  18. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  24. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. wind — moving air
  3. trunk — of a tree
  4. branch — a division
  5. degree — from a university
  6. degree — temperature
  7. mark — a trace
  8. snap — to click
  9. trunk — of an elephant
  10. wind — moving air
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. swing — in golf
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. swing — music
  15. mark — to pay attention
  16. trunk — of a car
  17. pound — a weight
  18. pound — to hit hard
  19. swing — to play on
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. mark — a grade
  24. pound — for dogs

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