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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: net · game · field · band · branch · swing · fork · degree

  1. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  13. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  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. net — in sport
  2. game — a match
  3. net — for catching
  4. field — for sport
  5. degree — from a university
  6. field — farmland
  7. fork — to eat with
  8. net — after costs
  9. branch — a division
  10. fork — in a road
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. swing — in golf
  13. fork — a garden tool
  14. swing — music
  15. band — a music group
  16. branch — of a tree
  17. degree — an amount
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. swing — to play on
  20. field — a subject
  21. band — a ring
  22. game — wild animals
  23. branch — of a bank
  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