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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 116 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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. spell — magic
  3. degree — from a university
  4. band — a ring
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. wave — a sudden rise
  7. degree — an amount
  8. root — of a word
  9. degree — temperature
  10. wave — of the sea
  11. branch — a division
  12. stock — shares
  13. band — a music group
  14. root — of a plant
  15. root — the cause
  16. spell — letters
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. row — to paddle
  20. row — a line
  21. spell — a short time
  22. wave — with your hand
  23. stock — goods
  24. branch — of a bank

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