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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. branch — of a bank
  3. prune — to trim
  4. clip — a video
  5. clip — to cut
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. shower — rain
  8. file — a tool
  9. clip — for paper
  10. branch — a division
  11. file — a document
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. prune — to trim
  14. shower — to wash
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. file — a line of people
  17. cell — in biology
  18. cell — in a prison

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