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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 fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  6. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  18. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. kid — to tease
  3. kid — child
  4. spell — magic
  5. pound — to hit hard
  6. trunk — of a car
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. spell — a short time
  9. branch — a division
  10. pound — a weight
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. spell — letters
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. band — a music group
  17. pound — for dogs
  18. band — a ring
  19. bat — the animal
  20. trunk — of an elephant
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. bass — low 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