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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: branch · shower · bass · file · scale · cold · bound · mine

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. That was ________________ to happen.
  11. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. bass — the fish
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. mine — for digging
  5. branch — a division
  6. bound — tied together
  7. file — a tool
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. bound — certain
  11. bass — the instrument
  12. cold — an illness
  13. shower — to wash
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. shower — rain
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. file — a line of people
  18. file — a document
  19. scale — size or range
  20. cold — not warm
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. bound — obliged
  24. scale — in 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