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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I can't ________________ this cold.
  5. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  8. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  9. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  16. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. lie — to recline
  3. spring — of water
  4. stand — to bear
  5. dip — to dunk
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. dip — a sauce
  8. stand — on your feet
  9. fan — to cool the air
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. spring — the season
  12. bat — the animal
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. spring — a coil
  15. stand — for spectators
  16. lie — an untruth
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. cold — an illness
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. branch — a division
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. dip — to sink

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