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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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  4. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  12. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. wave — a sudden rise
  4. ground — the earth
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. trunk — of a car
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. file — a document
  10. cold — not warm
  11. fine — all right
  12. wave — with your hand
  13. capital — a city
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. file — a line of people
  16. wave — of the sea
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. fine — high quality
  19. ground — crushed
  20. capital — money
  21. fine — a penalty
  22. branch — a division
  23. ground — a position
  24. file — 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