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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: game · season · cold · chest · branch · trunk · foot · tear

  1. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  2. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  3. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. Did you ________________ the meat?
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  12. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  13. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of an elephant
  2. foot — part of the body
  3. chest — a box
  4. cold — an illness
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. tear — from crying
  7. game — a match
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. season — to add flavour
  10. tear — from crying
  11. foot — a measure
  12. season — in sport
  13. foot — the bottom
  14. tear — to rip
  15. chest — of your body
  16. season — of the year
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. trunk — of a car
  19. cold — not warm
  20. game — wild animals
  21. chest — of your body
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. branch — a division

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