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

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  11. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  24. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. branch — of a bank
  3. wind — moving air
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. current — happening now
  6. row — a line
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. current — of water
  10. chest — of your body
  11. row — a quarrel
  12. mate — a friend
  13. mate — a partner
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. row — to paddle
  16. bat — the animal
  17. chest — a box
  18. mate — to breed
  19. chest — of your body
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. cold — not warm
  22. branch — a division
  23. current — electric
  24. wind — moving air

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