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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 · mine · file · degree · fan · branch · rash · drill

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  10. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  11. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  21. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. I don't want to ________________ the boat.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. file — a tool
  4. mine — for digging
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. branch — a division
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. drill — the tool
  10. drill — a practice
  11. rock — music
  12. file — a document
  13. rash — hasty
  14. rock — a stone
  15. file — a line of people
  16. drill — army training
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. degree — temperature
  19. degree — from a university
  20. degree — an amount
  21. fan — a supporter
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. rash — a series
  24. rock — to move gently

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