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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. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  2. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  3. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  4. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  11. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — of a bank
  2. branch — of a tree
  3. file — a line of people
  4. branch — a division
  5. land — ground
  6. chair — a leader
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. file — a tool
  9. last — to go on
  10. rule — a law
  11. rule — government
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. last — final
  14. net — after costs
  15. rule — to rule out
  16. march — the month
  17. file — a document
  18. land — to come down
  19. last — finally
  20. march — the month
  21. net — for catching
  22. land — a country
  23. net — in sport
  24. march — music

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