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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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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: tear · fan · branch · degree · wave · bowl · file · cold

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  23. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. wave — with your hand
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. degree — temperature
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. wave — of the sea
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. file — a document
  10. bowl — to roll
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. file — a line of people
  14. tear — from crying
  15. branch — a division
  16. cold — an illness
  17. tear — to rip
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. degree — an amount
  20. cold — not warm
  21. file — a tool
  22. wave — a sudden rise
  23. tear — from crying
  24. branch — of a tree

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