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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 120 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  13. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  14. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  18. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  22. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  23. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. lie — to recline
  4. wind — moving air
  5. kid — child
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. field — a subject
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. branch — a division
  10. wind — moving air
  11. spring — the season
  12. dip — to dunk
  13. patient — calm and waiting
  14. lie — an untruth
  15. spring — a coil
  16. field — farmland
  17. dip — to sink
  18. dip — a sauce
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. field — for sport
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. spring — of water

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