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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: degree · foot · row · spring · chest · march · branch · field

  1. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  3. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. row — a line
  3. foot — the bottom
  4. field — a subject
  5. march — the month
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. chest — of your body
  8. branch — a division
  9. march — the month
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. chest — of your body
  12. field — farmland
  13. foot — part of the body
  14. spring — a coil
  15. spring — the season
  16. field — for sport
  17. degree — an amount
  18. spring — of water
  19. branch — of a bank
  20. row — to paddle
  21. chest — a box
  22. degree — from a university
  23. foot — a measure
  24. degree — temperature

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