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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 124 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: cell · club · chair · prune · degree · hand · mate · spring

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. Have you found your soul ________________?
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. degree — an amount
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. spring — a coil
  5. cell — a phone
  6. mate — to breed
  7. hand — help
  8. mate — a friend
  9. club — for dancing
  10. cell — in biology
  11. degree — temperature
  12. prune — the fruit
  13. prune — to trim
  14. chair — a leader
  15. mate — a partner
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. hand — in cards
  19. prune — to trim
  20. chair — to sit on
  21. spring — the season
  22. club — a group
  23. club — for golf
  24. spring — of water

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