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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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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 · row · court · root · cold · kid · fall · bass

  1. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  23. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. court — of a king
  5. fall — to drop
  6. court — for sport
  7. court — of law
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. bass — the fish
  10. cold — an illness
  11. kid — to tease
  12. root — of a word
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. root — of a plant
  15. cold — not warm
  16. fall — to drop
  17. row — a line
  18. branch — a division
  19. kid — child
  20. root — the cause
  21. row — to paddle
  22. bass — the instrument
  23. fall — the season
  24. branch — of a tree

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