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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 120 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: chair · mine · wake · branch · content · bat · wind · game

  1. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  14. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  15. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  16. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  17. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — a division
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. content — happy
  5. wind — moving air
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. game — a match
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. wind — moving air
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. wake — a trail
  13. content — the amount
  14. wake — before a funeral
  15. branch — of a bank
  16. chair — a leader
  17. chair — to sit on
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. bat — the animal
  21. game — wild animals
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. mine — for digging

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