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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: cap · press · degree · cold · branch · club · band · last

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  19. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. press — to push
  3. last — finally
  4. band — a ring
  5. degree — temperature
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. press — a publisher
  8. club — for dancing
  9. cap — of ice
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. band — a music group
  12. degree — from a university
  13. branch — a division
  14. last — to go on
  15. cap — a hat
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cap — a lid
  18. branch — of a bank
  19. club — a group
  20. last — final
  21. club — for golf
  22. press — newspapers
  23. cold — not warm
  24. branch — of a tree

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