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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: straw · row · scale · rock · cold · branch · bear · content

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  11. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  12. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  15. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  23. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. scale — for weighing
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. cold — an illness
  6. branch — of a bank
  7. content — the amount
  8. row — a line
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. rock — a stone
  11. rock — to move gently
  12. branch — of a tree
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. rock — music
  15. bear — the animal
  16. scale — in music
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. branch — a division
  19. row — to paddle
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. cold — not warm
  22. bear — to put up with
  23. bear — the animal
  24. scale — size or range

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