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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. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. My mare is ________________ in color.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  17. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — a division
  2. bark — to shout
  3. spring — a coil
  4. clip — to cut
  5. bay — a horse colour
  6. clip — for paper
  7. spring — of water
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. cold — not warm
  10. hand — in cards
  11. hand — help
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. cold — an illness
  14. branch — of a bank
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. bay — a part of the sea
  17. bay — to keep at bay
  18. clip — a video
  19. spring — the season
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. wind — moving air
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. wind — moving air

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