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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. When was this ________________ built?
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  13. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  16. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  17. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. degree — an amount
  3. shower — to wash
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. degree — temperature
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. bat — the animal
  10. cold — not warm
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. deal — a big deal
  13. deal — to handle
  14. shower — rain
  15. temple — side of the head
  16. deal — an agreement
  17. net — after costs
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. branch — a division
  20. cold — an illness
  21. degree — from a university
  22. net — in sport
  23. net — for catching
  24. branch — of a tree

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