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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. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  3. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  4. That was ________________ to happen.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. prune — to trim
  3. branch — a division
  4. bound — certain
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. bound — obliged
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. cold — an illness
  9. wind — moving air
  10. degree — temperature
  11. file — a document
  12. degree — an amount
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. prune — to trim
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. cold — not warm
  17. bound — tied together
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. degree — from a university
  20. wake — before a funeral
  21. wind — moving air
  22. file — a line of people
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. wake — a trail

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