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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. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. When was this ________________ built?
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. degree — an amount
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. last — finally
  11. snap — to click
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. arm — a part of something
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. degree — temperature
  16. branch — a division
  17. temple — a place of worship
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. last — to go on
  20. last — final
  21. cold — not warm
  22. cold — an illness
  23. temple — side of the head
  24. pitcher — a jug

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