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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: shower · bat · cold · fine · degree · saw · branch · last

  1. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  2. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. I assure you, everything's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — from a university
  2. saw — past of 'see'
  3. last — finally
  4. cold — an illness
  5. saw — the tool
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. shower — to wash
  8. last — to go on
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. degree — temperature
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. fine — a penalty
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. cold — not warm
  15. branch — of a bank
  16. shower — rain
  17. saw — the tool
  18. degree — an amount
  19. bat — the animal
  20. fine — high quality
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. last — final
  23. branch — a division
  24. fine — all right

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