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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: squash · court · bark · cold · branch · sharp · net · scale

  1. The water is too ________________.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. net — for catching
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. net — in sport
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. court — for sport
  7. sharp — clever
  8. squash — the sport
  9. squash — to crush
  10. scale — size or range
  11. court — of law
  12. branch — a division
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. bark — to shout
  15. scale — in music
  16. cold — an illness
  17. branch — of a bank
  18. court — of a king
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. bark — of a tree
  24. net — after costs

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