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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cell · cold · kid · stock · branch · wind

  1. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. cold — an illness
  3. branch — of a tree
  4. kid — to tease
  5. wind — moving air
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. wind — moving air
  8. cell — a phone
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. stock — shares
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. cell — in biology
  13. stock — goods
  14. branch — a division
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. stock — a soup base

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