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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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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: kid · fan · snap · court · net · mine · tear · branch

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The ball is in your ________________.
  3. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  18. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  19. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. court — for sport
  3. snap — to snap out of it
  4. snap — to click
  5. fan — a supporter
  6. net — in sport
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. mine — for digging
  9. branch — a division
  10. kid — child
  11. net — for catching
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. tear — to rip
  14. tear — from crying
  15. court — of law
  16. court — of a king
  17. fan — to cool the air
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. branch — of a bank
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. tear — from crying
  22. net — after costs
  23. branch — of a tree
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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