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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 124 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. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. That must've been a ________________.
  7. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  11. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. row — a line
  4. wound — an injury
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. rush — a thrill
  7. rush — to hurry
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. mine — for digging
  10. branch — of a bank
  11. rush — hurry
  12. row — to paddle
  13. spring — of water
  14. degree — an amount
  15. spring — a coil
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. branch — a division
  18. bat — the animal
  19. degree — from a university
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. spring — the season
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. degree — temperature

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