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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. Did you ________________ the button?
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. degree — temperature
  3. spring — the season
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. bass — low music
  6. hand — in cards
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. bass — the fish
  9. spring — of water
  10. spring — a coil
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. press — to push
  13. degree — an amount
  14. press — newspapers
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. degree — from a university
  18. mine — an explosive
  19. mine — for digging
  20. hand — help
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. content — the amount
  23. press — a publisher
  24. branch — a division

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