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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: branch · cold · pop · mate · squash · pit · tear · snap

  1. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  14. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  21. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  22. You don't need to ________________ round.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. snap — to click
  3. tear — from crying
  4. snap — to snap out of it
  5. pop — soda
  6. mate — a partner
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. tear — from crying
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. mate — a friend
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. tear — to rip
  13. pit — in a race
  14. pit — a fruit stone
  15. squash — the sport
  16. branch — a division
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. squash — to crush
  21. pit — a hole
  22. pop — to visit
  23. cold — an illness
  24. pop — music

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