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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: clip · spring · object · content · prune · branch · kid · cold

  1. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. branch — of a bank
  2. cold — an illness
  3. content — the amount
  4. content — happy
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. spring — of water
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. object — to protest
  10. branch — a division
  11. prune — the fruit
  12. prune — to trim
  13. object — an aim
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. spring — a coil
  16. clip — for paper
  17. spring — the season
  18. kid — child
  19. prune — to trim
  20. cold — not warm
  21. object — a thing
  22. kid — to tease
  23. clip — to cut
  24. clip — a video

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