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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  6. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. court — for sport
  3. face — to point toward
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. prune — to trim
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. band — a music group
  8. prune — to trim
  9. court — of a king
  10. band — a ring
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. cold — an illness
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. face — to confront
  18. court — of law
  19. branch — a division
  20. face — part of the head
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. cold — not warm
  23. fan — to cool the air
  24. band — a rubber band

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