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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: shower · scale · branch · patient · fork · snap · cold · degree

  1. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — in music
  2. degree — from a university
  3. branch — of a bank
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. degree — temperature
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. shower — to wash
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. degree — an amount
  12. cold — an illness
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. shower — rain
  15. patient — calm and waiting
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. snap — to click
  18. branch — a division
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. cold — not warm
  21. scale — size or range
  22. patient — a sick person
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. fork — in a road

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