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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. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  7. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  19. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. march — the month
  3. tear — to rip
  4. cold — not warm
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. track — to keep track
  7. track — a path
  8. hand — in cards
  9. net — after costs
  10. branch — a division
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. tear — from crying
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. hand — help
  15. march — music
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. net — for catching
  19. track — a song
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. march — the month
  23. bat — the animal
  24. tear — from crying

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