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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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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: coach · prune · row · branch · last · race · pop · degree

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  15. We're almost out of ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. last — final
  3. race — humankind
  4. prune — to trim
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. last — to go on
  7. prune — to trim
  8. pop — to visit
  9. race — a contest
  10. degree — from a university
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. row — a line
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. pop — soda
  16. row — to paddle
  17. row — a quarrel
  18. last — finally
  19. degree — temperature
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. pop — music
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. race — the arms race
  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