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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: hand · degree · tube · bat · branch · bear · bark · cold

  1. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  16. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  17. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  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. bear — the animal
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. hand — help
  4. branch — a division
  5. bark — a dog's sound
  6. bat — the animal
  7. bear — to put up with
  8. bark — to shout
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. hand — in cards
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. bear — the animal
  16. branch — of a tree
  17. tube — a container
  18. tube — the underground
  19. cold — not warm
  20. degree — temperature
  21. degree — an amount
  22. cold — an illness
  23. tube — in a tire
  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