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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Did you ________________ the button?
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  23. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. mate — a partner
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. press — to push
  6. scale — in music
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. bat — the animal
  10. bass — low music
  11. press — a publisher
  12. branch — a division
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. mate — to breed
  16. bass — the instrument
  17. spring — the season
  18. bass — the fish
  19. press — newspapers
  20. spring — of water
  21. scale — size or range
  22. mine — for digging
  23. mate — a friend
  24. bat — in an idiom

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