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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. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  11. That was ________________ to happen.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  22. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — tied together
  2. rash — hasty
  3. hand — help
  4. pitch — a sales talk
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. hand — in cards
  7. pop — to visit
  8. cold — an illness
  9. pop — soda
  10. bound — obliged
  11. bound — certain
  12. pop — music
  13. court — for sport
  14. court — of a king
  15. court — of law
  16. cold — not warm
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. rash — a series
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. pitch — completely
  22. pitch — a sports field
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. branch — a division

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