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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. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  23. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — the season
  2. degree — temperature
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. spring — of water
  5. degree — an amount
  6. spring — a coil
  7. club — for dancing
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. clip — a video
  10. clip — for paper
  11. shower — to wash
  12. degree — from a university
  13. clip — to cut
  14. branch — a division
  15. dip — to sink
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. shower — rain
  19. cell — a phone
  20. club — a group
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. club — for golf
  23. dip — a sauce
  24. cell — in biology

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