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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: rock · degree · tear · mug · stock · net · kid · branch

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  14. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  15. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  16. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  17. Where did you ________________ them?
  18. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. degree — from a university
  3. rock — music
  4. net — for catching
  5. mug — a face
  6. tear — from crying
  7. degree — an amount
  8. kid — child
  9. degree — temperature
  10. tear — to rip
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. net — in sport
  13. net — after costs
  14. mug — a cup
  15. tear — from crying
  16. rock — to move gently
  17. mug — to rob
  18. branch — of a tree
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. stock — goods
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. rock — a stone
  23. stock — shares
  24. branch — a division

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