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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: branch · cell · mine · shower · land · clip · capital · mouse

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  3. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  16. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. branch — a division
  3. mine — for digging
  4. shower — rain
  5. branch — of a tree
  6. capital — a city
  7. cell — a phone
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. land — ground
  10. mouse — the animal
  11. clip — to cut
  12. land — to come down
  13. mouse — the animal
  14. capital — money
  15. branch — of a bank
  16. mouse — for a computer
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. land — a country
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. clip — for paper
  21. cell — in biology
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. clip — a video
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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