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

Word bank: cold · rest · mine · perch · cell · branch · bay · clip

  1. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  5. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. My mare is ________________ in color.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. rest — a break
  4. rest — what's left
  5. bay — a part of the sea
  6. clip — to cut
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. perch — the fish
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. branch — a division
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. rest — what's left
  13. cell — in biology
  14. cold — an illness
  15. bay — a horse colour
  16. cell — a phone
  17. bay — to keep at bay
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. clip — a video
  20. mine — for digging
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. cold — not warm
  24. clip — for paper

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