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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: patient · prune · bore · branch · cue · field · cold · race

  1. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  2. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  19. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.

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

Answer key

  1. cue — a signal
  2. bore — to drill
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. prune — to trim
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. cold — an illness
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. field — for sport
  9. race — the arms race
  10. bore — to tire
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. race — humankind
  13. prune — to trim
  14. cold — not warm
  15. field — farmland
  16. cue — a hint
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. branch — a division
  20. field — a subject
  21. patient — calm and waiting
  22. race — a contest
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. cue — for pool

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