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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: shower · branch · tube · net · stand · arm · kid · cold

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. I can't ________________ this cold.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  18. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. shower — rain
  3. tube — the underground
  4. net — for catching
  5. kid — child
  6. kid — to tease
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. cold — an illness
  10. stand — to bear
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. cold — not warm
  14. shower — to wash
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. stand — for spectators
  18. stand — on your feet
  19. net — in sport
  20. arm — a part of something
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. branch — a division
  23. tube — a container
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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