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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  5. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. I'll be taking the ________________.
  20. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. stem — a stem cell
  5. dip — a sauce
  6. wind — moving air
  7. band — a ring
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. dip — to sink
  10. wind — moving air
  11. bat — the animal
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. band — a music group
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. tube — a container
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. tube — the underground
  20. stem — to come from
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. branch — a division
  24. stem — of a plant

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