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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 116 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. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  17. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — of a bank
  2. mine — for digging
  3. cold — an illness
  4. branch — a division
  5. bat — the animal
  6. firm — steady
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. stem — of a plant
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. stem — to come from
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. cold — not warm
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. firm — a company
  17. firm — decided
  18. stem — a stem cell

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