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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: staff · kid · branch · degree · bat · cell · rock · wound

  1. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  4. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  22. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. rock — music
  2. kid — child
  3. rock — a stone
  4. branch — of a bank
  5. degree — from a university
  6. cell — in biology
  7. degree — an amount
  8. wound — an injury
  9. kid — to tease
  10. degree — temperature
  11. branch — a division
  12. staff — employees
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. wound — an injury
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. branch — of a tree
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. rock — to move gently
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. staff — a stick
  22. staff — employees
  23. cell — a phone
  24. bat — the animal

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