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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. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  2. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  3. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  7. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  8. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — music
  2. trunk — of a tree
  3. branch — of a bank
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. march — the month
  6. pit — a hole
  7. pit — in a race
  8. pit — a fruit stone
  9. snap — to click
  10. branch — a division
  11. file — a line of people
  12. file — a tool
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. march — the month
  16. spring — the season
  17. cold — an illness
  18. snap — to speak sharply
  19. spring — of water
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. file — a document
  22. spring — a coil
  23. cold — not warm
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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