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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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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: degree · prune · swing · straw · bank · court · wind · file

  1. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  4. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  15. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. David sat on the ________________.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  23. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. wind — moving air
  3. bank — of a river
  4. bank — for money
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. court — for sport
  7. degree — an amount
  8. court — of a king
  9. bank — for money
  10. prune — to trim
  11. file — a document
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. prune — to trim
  14. file — a tool
  15. swing — in golf
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. wind — moving air
  18. degree — temperature
  19. swing — to play on
  20. court — of law
  21. file — a line of people
  22. prune — the fruit
  23. swing — music
  24. degree — from a university

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