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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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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: kick · race · cold · temple · branch · land · plane · squash

  1. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  5. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. When was this ________________ built?
  8. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The ________________ took off on time.
  20. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  21. When are we going to ________________?
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kick — a thrill
  2. cold — not warm
  3. squash — the sport
  4. race — a contest
  5. plane — in geometry
  6. land — a country
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. temple — side of the head
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. kick — in football
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. race — the arms race
  14. plane — a tool
  15. squash — to crush
  16. land — ground
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. cold — an illness
  19. plane — an aircraft
  20. squash — the vegetable
  21. land — to come down
  22. branch — a division
  23. branch — of a bank
  24. race — humankind

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