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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Don't do anything ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. last — to go on
  3. branch — of a tree
  4. last — final
  5. rash — hasty
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. pass — to spend time
  8. field — a subject
  9. field — for sport
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. rash — a series
  12. spring — the season
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. field — farmland
  16. pass — a permit
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. branch — a division
  19. cold — an illness
  20. pass — to succeed
  21. spring — a coil
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. spring — of water
  24. cold — not warm

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