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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 like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  3. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  4. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  7. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. toast — the most admired
  3. toast — a drink to someone
  4. patient — a sick person
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. patient — calm and waiting
  7. branch — a division
  8. cell — in biology
  9. patient — a sick person
  10. last — to go on
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. bat — the animal
  15. fork — in a road
  16. last — final
  17. last — finally
  18. cold — not warm
  19. branch — of a tree
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. cell — a phone
  24. cold — an illness

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