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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 120 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: degree · chest · straw · branch · fan · saw · snap · craft

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  6. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. She's very handy with a ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. chest — of your body
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. snap — to click
  5. craft — a handicraft
  6. craft — a skill
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. craft — boats
  15. chest — of your body
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. branch — a division
  19. degree — from a university
  20. saw — the tool
  21. degree — temperature
  22. chest — a box
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. saw — the tool

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