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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 120 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: march · trunk · branch · cold · staff · tear · tube · clip

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  4. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. I'll be taking the ________________.
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. staff — a stick
  4. staff — employees
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. tear — from crying
  7. clip — to cut
  8. tube — a container
  9. tear — to rip
  10. tube — the underground
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. trunk — of an elephant
  13. march — music
  14. branch — a division
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. cold — not warm
  17. clip — for paper
  18. cold — an illness
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. branch — of a tree
  21. march — the month
  22. clip — a video
  23. staff — employees
  24. tear — from crying

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