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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: shower · march · degree · bowl · last · kid · saw · branch

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. He works in a ________________ mill.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. She's very handy with a ________________.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  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. shower — to wash
  2. last — final
  3. degree — an amount
  4. kid — child
  5. bowl — to roll
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. degree — temperature
  8. bowl — a dish
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. branch — a division
  11. shower — rain
  12. saw — the tool
  13. march — the month
  14. bowl — a football final
  15. march — music
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. last — finally
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. kid — to tease
  20. march — the month
  21. degree — from a university
  22. saw — the tool
  23. last — to go on
  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