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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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  22. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to bend
  2. content — happy
  3. branch — of a bank
  4. content — the amount
  5. spring — the season
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. chest — of your body
  8. file — a document
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. branch — a division
  11. spring — a coil
  12. file — a tool
  13. chest — a box
  14. wind — moving air
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. spring — of water
  17. chest — of your body
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. patient — calm and waiting
  20. file — a line of people
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. lean — thin
  23. wind — moving air
  24. branch — of a tree

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