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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: bat · squash · mine · prune · wound · game · march · degree

  1. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — to crush
  2. game — a match
  3. wound — an injury
  4. mine — for digging
  5. bat — the animal
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. degree — an amount
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. march — the month
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. wound — an injury
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. prune — to trim
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. march — music
  16. degree — from a university
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. march — the month
  20. squash — the sport
  21. game — wild animals
  22. degree — temperature
  23. prune — to trim
  24. mine — an explosive

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