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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. branch — of a bank
  3. court — for sport
  4. spring — the season
  5. land — ground
  6. branch — a division
  7. court — of a king
  8. cold — not warm
  9. tube — the underground
  10. pit — a hole
  11. spring — a coil
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. bat — the animal
  14. court — of law
  15. pit — a fruit stone
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. spring — of water
  19. cold — an illness
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. tube — a container
  22. land — to come down
  23. pit — in a race
  24. land — a country

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