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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: spring · cold · lean · rule · tube · branch · rest · bat

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  6. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  13. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. He is as ________________ as a wolf.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. lean — to bend
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. tube — the underground
  5. rule — to rule out
  6. branch — of a bank
  7. bat — the animal
  8. rule — government
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. tube — a container
  12. rule — a law
  13. rest — what's left
  14. spring — the season
  15. spring — a coil
  16. cold — an illness
  17. rest — what's left
  18. cold — not warm
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. spring — of water
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. branch — a division
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. lean — thin

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