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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: ball · arm · branch · fan · board · shower · spring · march

  1. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  3. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  10. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. The King held a masked ________________.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. board — a committee
  3. fan — to cool the air
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. ball — a great time
  6. board — a flat piece
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. shower — to wash
  9. board — to get on
  10. arm — a part of something
  11. branch — a division
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. march — the month
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. march — the month
  17. spring — a coil
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. ball — a dance
  20. shower — rain
  21. spring — of water
  22. spring — the season
  23. march — music
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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