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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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Word bank
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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: bat · wax · leaves · sharp · branch · straw · spring · game

  1. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  8. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  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. spring — the season
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. wax — to grow
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. spring — a coil
  7. leaves — to go away
  8. leaves — of a tree
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. branch — a division
  14. bat — the animal
  15. leaves — lets stay
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. sharp — clever
  18. spring — of water
  19. game — a match
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. game — wild animals
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  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