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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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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: mine · pound · race · clip · wound · degree · pop · branch

  1. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  17. You don't need to ________________ round.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. branch — of a tree
  2. wound — an injury
  3. pop — soda
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. degree — an amount
  7. wound — an injury
  8. race — humankind
  9. clip — for paper
  10. pound — a weight
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. race — the arms race
  13. branch — a division
  14. pound — to hit hard
  15. degree — temperature
  16. pop — music
  17. pop — to visit
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. clip — to cut
  20. mine — for digging
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. race — a contest
  23. degree — from a university
  24. clip — a video

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