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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. That was ________________ to happen.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — certain
  2. wound — an injury
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. bound — obliged
  5. cell — a phone
  6. snap — to speak sharply
  7. wound — an injury
  8. bound — tied together
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. snap — to click
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. fall — the season
  16. fall — to drop
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. branch — a division
  19. mine — for digging
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. cell — in biology
  23. fall — to drop
  24. snap — to snap out of it

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