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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. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  2. The ________________ took off on time.
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — a division
  2. plane — an aircraft
  3. present — a gift
  4. chest — a box
  5. cold — not warm
  6. field — a subject
  7. kid — child
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. present — the time now
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. kid — to tease
  14. cold — an illness
  15. chest — of your body
  16. present — there
  17. chest — of your body
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. field — farmland
  20. march — the month
  21. march — music
  22. march — the month
  23. field — for sport
  24. plane — a tool

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