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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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  7. That was ________________ to happen.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  20. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  21. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. Don't do anything ________________.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. bat — the animal
  3. cold — an illness
  4. calf — of the leg
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. calf — a young animal
  7. bound — certain
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. bound — obliged
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. branch — a division
  15. mine — for digging
  16. present — a gift
  17. cold — not warm
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. present — there
  20. calf — a young animal
  21. bound — tied together
  22. present — the time now
  23. rash — hasty
  24. rash — a series

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