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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: ball · cold · branch · degree · clip · roll · net · bat

  1. The King held a masked ________________.
  2. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a dance
  2. branch — a division
  3. net — for catching
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. bat — the animal
  6. cold — not warm
  7. roll — a cake
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. roll — a list
  11. clip — to cut
  12. cold — an illness
  13. clip — for paper
  14. net — in sport
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. degree — from a university
  17. degree — an amount
  18. net — after costs
  19. ball — a great time
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. degree — temperature
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. clip — a video

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