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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: mate · deal · branch · mine · cold · board · field · content

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  13. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  19. Have you found your soul ________________?
  20. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  21. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  24. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. field — for sport
  5. content — happy
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. field — farmland
  8. board — a flat piece
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. cold — an illness
  12. mine — an explosive
  13. branch — of a bank
  14. branch — a division
  15. cold — not warm
  16. field — a subject
  17. mine — for digging
  18. board — a committee
  19. mate — a partner
  20. mate — to breed
  21. board — to get on
  22. mate — a friend
  23. deal — an agreement
  24. deal — to handle

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