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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  15. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. patient — a sick person
  4. file — a tool
  5. branch — a division
  6. patient — calm and waiting
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. cold — an illness
  9. march — music
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. scale — for weighing
  12. file — a document
  13. band — a music group
  14. root — of a word
  15. root — the cause
  16. file — a line of people
  17. scale — size or range
  18. root — of a plant
  19. scale — in music
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. march — the month
  23. branch — of a bank
  24. march — the month

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